




THE O’ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 


OR 

DIPPER FOLK IDYLLS 



ALETHEIA 


■u.d 




PHILADELPHIA 

Bmerican baptist publication Society 

1420 Chestnut Street 


THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 
Two Copies Received 

APR. 5 1901 


Copyright entry 
OlASS a XXc. N». 

i srxt 


COPY B. 



Copyright 1901 by the 

American Baptist Publication Society 


jfrom tbc Society's own lpress 


Of 

> 

o . . ... 

! \ C .U'ih f 

<& \ 

fr^ 

CONTENTS 


CHAPTER PAGE 

Introduction v . . 8 

I. Botany Bay n 

II. On Glasgow Green 23 

III. Jack Foster’s Dark Days ... 37 

IV. Early Companions 51 

V. The Invasion of Botany Bay . . 61 

VI. Ways of Preaching 74 

VII. A Campaign Planned 86 

VIII. A Wonderful Evening 99 

IX. The Mission House 114 

X. The “Disciple Class” 129 

XI. Jack at the University .... 15 1 

XII. Binnie and Union Courts . . 167 

XIII. Adventures in the Courts . . 181 


3 


4 CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XIV. Odd Characters, 197 

XV. Looking toward India, 210 

XVI. Foreign Missions or Home? . . 221 
XVII. Some Remarkable Conversions, . 229 
XVIII. Settling at Wabsterton, .... 250 
Glossary, 267 


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 


Children Rescued in Mission Work, 

Title Page , 54, 113, 192, 196 

Botany Bay 10 

A Highland Washing . . 26 

Pastor Welchman' s Chapel 62 

Jack Foster , “ Study nt Pastor" 75 

Jack' s Guardians 96 

Jack' s Tutor 162 

Scenes of House-to-house Work. . . . 169, 177 

^ Cumbrae Worthy 198 

A Wabsterton Fireside 230 

Wabsterton Cross 238 

Old Congregational Chapel at Wabsterton, 

Built by the late John Campbell, D. D., 
Editor oj Congregational Organ, London 249 

Elizabeth Stuart 253 

Wabsterton Baptist Chapel 258 

The Pastor and his Wife 262, 263 

5 













































INTRODUCTION 


This story is strictly founded upon 
fact, and is dedicated to all loyal-hearted, 
God-fearing young people, who have even 
the faintest flicker of a desire to serve 
God and their generation. 

Our aim is to show what may be ac- 
complished, even by the most obscure 
and humble in our churches, once God 
the Holy Spirit is recognized and hon- 
ored, and the Holy Scripture accepted 
as the only rule of faith and practice. 

More might be done than has ever been 
attempted by the young people of our 
several congregations, if they could only 
be aroused to recognize the fact that they 
have been saved to serve, and that the 
Head of the body,' of which they are mem- 
bers, “ came not to be ministered unto 
but to minister, and to give his life a 
ransom for many.” 

In our Christian democracy many of 

7 


8 


INTRODUCTION 


the evils which afflict it might be pre- 
vented if our young people only had 
proper guidance at the outset and a fit 
employment of their youthful energy, 
fervor, and conscious fellowship with 
Jesus. As in the world so in the con- 
gregation, 

Satan finds some mischief still 
For idle hands to do. 

To master him three things are neces- 
sary, u Prayer to God, trust in God, and 
plenty of hard work.” 

Over a century ago the Kettering peo- 
ple were torn asunder by theological 
hair-splitting, and the leal heart of dear 
Andrew Fuller was all but broken and 
his ministry rendered all but fruitless, 
until they became interested in the sal- 
vation of the heathen world. 

May our simple unadorned tale lead 
many of our Christian young people “to 
expect great things from God, and to at- 
tempt great things for God.” 

“ The neck is bent by the sword, but 
the heart is bent by the heart.” “ Who 
loved me and gave himself for me.” May 


INTRODUCTION 


9 


the love of Christ constrain us to service 
and to sacrifice in loyalty to him who is 
both Lord and Christ. 

A A. 

January, 1900. 


t 











THE O'ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 


CHAPTER I 


BOTANY BAY 


Things bad begun make themselves strong by ill. 


— Macbeth. 



'HE very mention of the place is sug- 


1 gestive and reminiscent of odd char- 
acters and hard experiences in that far- 
off land to which at one time so many 
culprits of all kinds were deported for 
their own and their country’s good. The 
real Botany Bay was New South Wales, 
Australia, but our “ Botany ” was not 
so far away. It was the nick-name of a 
street in the north central district of Glas- 


gow. 


The street was shaped like an L, the 
short line running due West, and the 
long one due North. It was a long nar- 
row street of old tenement houses. Many 
of them were tenements of one apartment, 


12 THE O’ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

others had two rooms or a room and a 
kitchen, or what the Scotch term a “ but 
and a ben,” to many a one the height of 
his ambition. 

The flat above the street level was 
reached by an outside stone stairway 
with a wooden hand-rail, and on the 
stair-head or landing there was what is 
familiarly known as a jawbox, or recep- 
tacle for slops of all kinds, which found 
their way to the sewer through a “rone” 
or run. Here and there on the street 
level were small huckster places for the 
sale of bread, milk, vegetables, small- 
wares, fire -kindling, and coals. In Botany 
Bay such places were a necessity as the 
folk there lived from hand to mouth, and 
had neither the accommodation nor the 
means to buy things in quantity. 

Why was it called “ Botany Bay ” ? 
Because it was a noted locality into which 
poor people from all quarters had been 
crowded pell-mell through sheer force of 
circumstances. It was the last social 
ditch in their terrible life battle which 
they could occupy before dropping into 
the pauper’s grave. 


BOTANY BAY 


!3 


A number of them, it is quite true, had 
gotten there entirely through their own 
fault. Some were shiftless and thriftless, 
adrift all the time and moved up and 
down by the tide of outward circum- 
stances. Its denizens were an interest- 
ing study. A large proportion of them 
were slaves, the willing slaves through 
inheritance or up-bringing, of what we 
might term an all-devouring, irresistible 
appetite for Scotch whisky. 

Old Jean Boyd was wont to say : “ It is 
the onlie bit kumfort I hae in this worl’. 
A wee drap gude whisky. An auld crea- 
ture like me huz at times need o’ it. Ye 
ken, it saftens the host (cough), and helps 
me to breathe mair freely and naebody 
ever saw me the worse of it.” 

Whisky is the fell enemy of the Scot, 
high or low, who tampers with it as a 
beverage, or who gives to it any kind of 
a welcome as the friend of geniality and 
good company. 

Many of the Botany Bay folk were well 
connected, but felt unequal to their life 
battle in a more respectable neighbor- 
hood, through inability to pay rent and 


14 the o’erturn o’ botany bay 

taxes, and to dress in accordance with 
society’s demands. They felt themselves 
shunted into a siding on life’s great high- 
way from the seen to the unseen. Others 
were so low down on the ladder of social 
struggle as to have lost long ago all hope 
as to getting up higher and were now 
satisfied to live and die in “ Botany Bay.” 

The place had its name because all 
decent people had been led by common 
report to regard it as a locality crowded 
with hard cases, uncanny persons, social 
dangers. But we are not aware that it 
was known to harbor any thieves or pros- 
titutes. Its denizens, so far as known, 
had not sunk so low as that, though they 
might be next neighbors to it by pover- 
ty’s hard pressure. 

Strong drink and poverty, with all that 
it brings in its train of trials, — failure to 
pay rent and taxes, hostility to the col- 
lector, the bailiff, the constable, and the 
city missionary of a certain type, — made 
that street what it was, “ Botany Bay.” 

It was in everybody’s mouth that au- 
thority could not be enforced, debt could 
not be collected, nor could the gospel of 


BOTANY BAY 


15 


the grace of God be preached as in other 
parts of the city, without humiliating 
insults and bodily injuries. Whosoever 
entered there in the interests of either 
the law or the gospel had to be in pos- 
session of all his wits, and on the alert 
for the contents of the jawbox or some- 
thing worse, which can only be hinted 
at, and for a hail-shower of broken delft, 
attended by the use of words unfit to be 
seen in print. 

It was an acquired vocabulary, and 
somewhat extensive, and as brought into 
use gave the cold shivers to one unac- 
customed to such profanity and filth ; and 
yet these people once spoke a pure lan- 
guage and were clean-hearted and God- 
fearing, in a manner. Evil communica- 
tions had corrupted good manners, and 
now they were down in the pit of moral 
filth with the rest. When a man falls he 
falls low ; but when a woman falls she 
falls lower still in the scale of morals. 
It is her nature to do so. 

Many of those poor people had had 
good chances in life in the way of educa- 
tion, religious training, and pure, health- 


1 6 THE O’ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

fill surroundings — the children of a Bible- 
loving and God-fearing parentage. They 
had received all and left their father’s 
house, and now they were in that far 
country living and feeding with the moral 
swine-herd. To awaken reminiscences of 
former days was to soften the heart that 
had grown hard through moral delin- 
quency, and cause the eyes to fill and the 
big salt tears to start and tumble over 
each other as they made their way in 
haste down their begrimed faces, and 
then the head would go down in shame 
and the heart sob out its grief, as we 
have often heard it : 

“ Oh, my God, huz it really come to 
this? Hae I really forgotten a’ ? Huz 
a’ slipp'd awa’ frae me, am I an ootcast, 
and maun I aye remain sae ? I belang 
tae decent clean folk. I hae disgraced 
my f aether’s name, and si lin’d times oot o’ 
number against my auld mither’s prayers ! 
I had a glide godly mither and a religious 
upbringing, and noo I am no worthy o’ 
bein’ seen in decent company, and my 
claes and my habits, which are the warst 
of it a’, maun bury me alive where I 


BOTANY BAY 


17 

shou’d hae nae place ava. Oh, my God, 
I am no worthy o’ your notice. I am 
noo clean past a’ redemption, and tae 
press my claim upon thee for peety or 
for pawrdon would be to affront a holy 
and just God.” 

This was the sad wail of a man who 
still had marked traces of former respect- 
ability. He was a large man, well built, 
with a handsome face and a well-formed 
head. He was by occupation a grain 
shoveler at the harbor, but he had within 
a thousand yards of his home a relative 
who was a Doctor of Divinity and the 
pastor of a large congregation. His poor 
wife was a confirmed invalid, a woman 
of a beautiful spirit, and deeply interested 
in her husband’s welfare. The neighbors 
said : 

“ She iz deein o’ a waestin’ (consump- 
tion). She iz as glide a woman as there 
iz in a’ Botany, and she iz no lang fur 
this worl’ and would like tae speak tae ye 
on speeritual things. She huz aye dune 
the best she cou’d and has been a gude 
wife and mither. He himsel’ iz no sic a 
bad fallow, if he would onlie let the whis- 

B 


1 8 THE OVERTURN O* BOTANY BAY 

ky alane. Oh, dae see her, for she huz 
jist a wee while here and would like tae 
gang awa’ tae meet her God.” 

In Botany Bay there were diamonds 
and pearls worth seeking amid all its 
moral rubbish and dirt. 

Two young lads by a strange Provi- 
dence became deeply interested in these 
folk. Their own hearts had been touched 
and softened by God the Holy Spirit 
through the word, and they had been led 
to make a complete surrender of them- 
selves to Christ, but only after a long 
struggle to hold by the world and their 
own self-righteousness. Neither of them 
had been what might be called hard 
cases, yet it was a battle before they could 
lay down their weapons of rebellion to 
trust and serve Christ alone. 

Both of them had had a careful relig- 
ious education and training, but until a 
little before this time had had no experi- 
mental knowledge of spiritual religion. 
They used a form of prayer, had had a 
respect for religion, and knew the Bible 
well. Teamed in the family and the 
school, much of it was known to them 


BOTANY BAY 


by rote, and many of its beautiful pas- 
sages were appreciated and quoted with 
delight. Yet they did not know Jesus as 
a personal friend and Saviour, Saviour of 
sinners and King of saints. 

One of them stood in the same relation 
to the other that Andrew did to his own 
brother. He made his acquaintance at 
a religious meeting, and stuck to him 
like a brother until in the end he was 
brought to Jesus. For many years they 
were chums in every good work, and all 
through their college career. 

The two lads often had long walks to- 
gether, and in their course would open 
the heart to each other, and it was soon 
discovered that their thoughts and their 
plans were alike. Both desired to grow 
in grace and in the knowledge of our 
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and to be 
live, useful men. When the Botany folk 
were brought to their notice they were 
at the time actively interested in Chris- 
tian work, and were doing the best they 
knew how, in a quiet, unobserved way, to 
reach down to those who were still lower 
down in the social scale, and who through 


20 THE OVERTURN O* BOTANY BAY 

force of circumstances more than their 
own neglect were out of the reach of the 
saving message. 

On a Lord’s Day afternoon, early in the 
summer of 1859, the two lads stood to- 
gether in front of the church door look- 
ing toward Botany Bay. The police were 
making a raid that afternoon upon its 
denizens, and shortly four of them ap- 
peared carrying out a white-haired vet- 
eran of the cross, who had been badly 
hurt, was bleeding profusely, and seemed 
more dead than alive. The inquiry was : 

“ Who is it ? What has happened ? 
Has he been fighting ? Is he one of the 
Botany folk ? ” 

“ No, he is the auld missionary and 
was holding a meeting when he was 
struck down by a broken bottle, and 
now he is being carried out more like a 
dying than a living man.” 

Then the passers-by said : “ What a 
shame that such things should take place 
on a Sabbath Day and in a Christian 
land ! The folk o’er there are worse than 
the African Hottentots, — the villains, — 
the police ought to show them no mercy.” 


BOTANY BAY 


21 


It was indeed a sad sight, and revealed 
a distressing state of morals in Botany 
Bay ; but it set the two lads thinking, 
and it was not in vain or for naught 
that the old missionary had been struck 
down at the post of duty. Yet this in- 
cident only tended to confirm the public 
in the opinion that the Botany folk were 
a wicked, good-for-nothing lot, and ought 
to be left to themselves to complete their 
own wreckage in that dirty hole of a 
place. 

The ill usage of the old servant of 
God for a time put a stop to all mission- 
ary operations there, as such work de- 
manded both courage and discretion, and 
to a large degree sanctified common sense. 
And gumption, or good sense, is not one 
of those things for which, as yet, our col- 
leges have provided. 

It turned out that the wounded mis- 
sionary did not quite understand human 
nature. He began work at the wrong 
end, usurping a place far beyond him, 
making it his particular business, in the 
harshest of tones and with the most vio- 
lent gestures, to pronounce a people’s 


22 THE O’ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

doom instead of delivering the word of 
reconciliation, telling out the love and 
power of the Saviour. In all true, effect- 
ive evangelism, the law’s terrors have 
their place, but at that particular mo- 
ment in Botany Bay they were out of 
place, and only evoked resentment and 
the shower of missiles that nearly ended 
his career as a street preacher. 

Yet the poor man was doing the best 
he knew how, and deserved the utmost 
sympathy in his effort to lift his fellows 
to a higher moral plane in their life bat- 
tle. Who knows but his very blunders 
made it easier for those who came after 
him, attempting the same work in a more 
lowly spirit, and by more natural meth- 
ods. Is it not true? The most effective 
lessons in life are those we receive by 
strong contrasts. In aggressive Chris- 
tian work, we are too apt to begin as 
“sons of thunder” to the belittlement of 
“the small, still voice,” and the spirit of 
Him who breaks not the bruised reed and 
does not snuff out the smoking flax. 


CHAPTER II 


ON GLASGOW GREEN 


Poor sons of toil ; oh, grudge them not the breeze 
That plays with Sabbath flowers ; the clouds that 


play 


With Sabbath winds ; the hum of Sabbath bees ; 
The Sabbath walk ; the skylark’ s Sabbath lay ; 
The silent sunshine of the Sabbath day. 

HE “ Green ” was the people’s park 



X and at that time was the only open 
space where Glasgow’s overcrowded popu- 
lation of struggling poor could meet and 
freely breathe untainted air. It is a park 
of about three hundred acres, and ex- 
tends from Goal Square at foot of the 
“ Saltmarket,” on the west, to “ Allens- 
pen ” near Rutherglen Bridge on the 
southeast ; on the north it is bounded by 
Greendyke Street, Monteith Row, New- 
liall Terrace, and Greenside Street, and 
on the south by the River Clyde, then a 
comparatively pure stream. 

This extensive common was laid out 


24 the o’erturn o’ botany bay 

in beautiful, well-made walks, and in 
many parts was well wooded with elm 
and beech trees of great age, such as the 
Lover’s Loan, the King’s Park, and the 
river bank of the “ Flesher’s Haugh.” 
Near the “ roon ” seat, there is a public 
gymnasium, well patronized. All over 
the Green, seats in abundance were pro- 
vided for public use, and there were also 
spring wells, some of which were said 
to possess medicinal virtues, such as the 
“ Eye Well.” But the wells are gone, 
and the waters of Loch Katrine take 
their place, as the public health de- 
manded it. 

The Green was the young people’s re- 
sort, where they could roll and tumble 
about at will and play games of all kinds 
free from police interference ; rounders 
(baseball), cricket, football, etc. It was 
also the favorite resort of political agita- 
tors, social economists, open-air preach- 
ers, and the opponents of all religion. 
Sabbath afternoon and evening it was 
dotted with congregations of all kinds, 
and these served as a kind of safety valve 
to control and temper the destructive 


ON GLASGOW GREEN 


25 


forces of the all but maddened, toiling, 
struggling, starving thousands, and tens 
of thousands of that great city. Out in 
the fresh air they had elbow room, the 
right of public meeting to vent their 
grievances, propound their theories of 
redress, and proclaim a social and politi- 
cal millennium, and then they returned 
home in some measure unloaded of the 
sense of their terrible wrongs, to fall into 
line once more to go through the drudg- 
ery, the awful drudgery, of their hum- 
drum daily life. 

“In the days of childhood,” says Jack, 
“ the Green was a delightful place to go 
to, specially the ‘ Laigh Green ’ with its 
abundance of gowans (daisies), dande- 
lions, groundsel, and goldenrod. It was 
the bairns’ paradise, and yet in the gloam- 
ing it was their dread, because of its 
‘ Will o’ the wisp ’ and the peat bog into 
which it was apt to lead them. O11 the 
river bank were numerous wells, and 
choice bathing spots, which in summer 
and fall, early and late, were crowded 
with bathers. It was a great health re- 
sort and prized by thousands of the 



26 THE O’ERTURN o’ BOTANY BAY 

laboring poor, for there they could not 
only air themselves and their grievances, 
but the women folk could bring with 


them the week’s wash, and there bleacli 
and dry the clothes, and have a day’s 
outing as well as labor. The Green was 
and is still a great boon to the people.” 


ON GLASGOW GREEN 


27 


All over the world to-day there are 
tens of thousands of Glasgow’s children 
who can yet be moved to tears by the 
very mention of it, as it recalls the days 
of happy childhood in the Green, and on 
the banks of the bonny Clyde. 

Jack Foster says he remembers many 
great meetings in the Green, but the 
greatest of all was the one addressed by 
Fergus O’Connor, which was held near 
Nelson’s monument, and at which it is 
said there were at least one hundred 
thousand people. The whole city was 
“ en fete" The different trades, and 
trades-unions were out in force with 
brass and fife bands, banners, and de- 
vices of all kinds. The police and mili- 
tary were on the alert to suppress riot. 

At one of those great meetings of the 
unemployed, Chartists, a deputation was 
appointed to wait upon the authorities 
to demand work or bread ; but when re- 
ceived they had what was termed scurvy 
treatment, and it was then decided that 
the time had come for quiet endurance 
to end, and for them to seek forcible re- 
dress. Everybody should now help him- 


28 THE O’ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

self to whatever he could get, as there 
was enough and to spare for all. 

The granaries were full, so were the 
stores and the bakeries, and thousands 
were dropping into the ditch through 
sheer starvation, as there was no work, 
and bread was at famine prices. The 
outcome was the Glasgow riot, one of 
the saddest events in the history of Scot- 
land’s great commercial metropolis, and 
might be termed its darkest period. 
Martial law was proclaimed, and every- 
where could be heard the tramp of armed 
men. Many valuable lives were sacri- 
ficed to obtain the amelioration of social 
conditions. 

On the Lord’s Day morn, from four to 
nine o’clock, the poorest of the poor were 
out by the thousands on the Green to 
get a breath of God’s free fresh air and a 
drink of the best of water at Aaron’s 
well. This early hour was their outing, 
the sunning and sunny time of their 
hard life, when they could breathe in 
another world, gain an inkling of its 
beauties, birds, trees, flowers, river, and 
dale, and in the distance “ Cathkin’s 


ON GLASGOW GREEN 29 

bonny braes.” The Green was an out- 
let from the hell of life into the blessed 
purity and liberty of nature. These 
poor people were nowhere in sight when 
decent church-going people were abroad. 
Before the city bells had commenced to 
toll for service in the different churches, 
like rats they had taken to their holes, 
and would not be seen again until the 
gloaming, when the darkness would put 
a new face on their seedy, worn-out, tat- 
tered wraps, and make recognition diffi- 
cult. 

Silas Stirling and Jack Foster had been 
reading much about the Fulton Street 
daily prayer meeting in New York City, 
and the great religious awakening which 
in answer to prayer was the outcome 
and of its blessings extending to the 
north of Ireland. Thousands were being 
brought to the foot of the cross, and God 
was using the most unlikely persons to 
effect his own purpose. The Holy Spirit 
used this knowledge to fire their young 
hearts to prayer and to special effort in 
Christian service. 

They had an inkling of their own ig- 


30 THE OVERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

norance and weakness and shrank from 
filling a conspicuous place in the Master’s 
vineyard. They would turn to the out- 
cast classes and seek them at such an 
hour of the day and in such places as 
would prevent their being brought into 
public notice. They would give what 
they had freely received to the thousands 
of friendless poor who were wandering, 
as sheep without a shepherd, telling 
them of a Saviour’s love, confident that 
they would care for the message itself 
more than for its setting in fine words 
and beautiful imagery. They were will- 
ing to allow the Holy Ghost to use them, 
and believed that if they had anything 
to say words would be found to express it. 
But they would attempt nothing aside 
from Bible study and prayer, and they 
would give the heart the utmost freedom, 
assured that in the end honesty of pur- 
pose and warmth of affection would 
conquer the most hardened. They un- 
derstood that the gospel was “ the word 
of reconciliation,” that the Son of God 
as the Son of Man “ came not to condemn, 
but to save the world.” 


ON GLASGOW GRK^N 3 1 

The two young friends now brought 
to our notice had, after much thought 
and earnest prayer, made a covenant 
to be loyal to Christ and each other in a 
gospel crusade of a modest character on 
Glasgow Green. Their hearts went out 
in compassion for its multitudes who on 
the early morning of the Lord’s Day 
availed themselves of an outing in the 
“ caller ” (fresh) air. 

It was indeed a modest venture, and a 
more daring one never entered their 
young heads, an early morning service at 
the “ roon ” seat, King’s Park, on the high 
ground overlooking Flesh er’s Haugh, a 
noted corner. 

Silas by mutual agreement was the 
leader of the psalmody, Jack at the out- 
set reader and preacher, and afterward 
it was taken in turn, so there was a divi- 
sion of labor. It was an effort which 
love prompted in behalf of an utterly 
neglected class, made out of sight of 
those who knew them and who would 
be likely to criticize it. 

The audience from the very outset was 
made up of hundreds of poor creatures 


32 the o’erturn o’ botany bay 

hungering for a kindly word and a broth- 
erly recognition, in their rags and want. 
Poor people, many of them had slept out 
all night in the open air ; others had 
stolen out from their dark, close, fetid 
dens, to obtain a breath of God’s good 
“ caller ” air, a blink of the sun, and to 
hear the wee birdies sing in the stillness 
of his holy Sabbath morn. 

The sight of these early strollers was 
one never to be forgotten. It was a rev- 
elation of the privations that some have 
to suffer in life to the enrichment and 
comfort of others. 

The message which the laddies carried 
to these waifs of society was, as Jack 
puts it, “ The story o’ a faither’s love, 
and a Saviour’s britherly sympathy and 
self-sacrifice upon Calvary’s rude beam 
of torture, made red wi’ his ain life’s 
bluid, to atone for and to put awa’ a’ 
your sins, and to win you for God, and 
frae the evil to the gude. He is the freen 
o’ every one o’ you, loves you, and died 
on the cross for you all.” 

“ It was always a talk, and never a ser- 
mon. Such a thing was out of our 


ON GLASGOW GREEN 


33 


thoughts, and the only argument used 
by us was that of experience, and in its 
use we had bluid earnestness, believing 
in a living, loving, almighty Christ, as 
an abiding presence.” 

When they faced that crowd of hungry 
and poorly clad outcasts, it was with heart 
tenderness. They had something to say 
and it was said in the doric of the West 
of Scotland, and in a way that the dullest 
and most illiterate of that motley throng 
could understand. It was a bold venture, 
but they were oblivious of any risk. 
Their love to Jesus blinded them to all 
else but the salvation of that crowd of 
men and women so far away from God 
and right living. They did not cast their 
ill deeds in their teeth, but did all that 
could be done to lead them to see the 
love of God in a Saviour who is love 
itself. 

If the weather was fine and the morn- 
ing warm and genial, you might find at 
the “ round seat ” as many as from six 
hundred to one thousand persons, some- 
times more, gathered to hear the laddies 
sing and tell the gospel message. They 
c 


34 THE o’erturn o’ botany bay 

had nothing to give away but love, and 
they had love in return, and many a 
u God bless you, laddies. You hae dune 
us gude, and it’s real kind o’ you to think 
o’ us, and come tae help us at this early 
hour o’ the day. God Almichty wull re- 
ward you, his ain bairns. It’s like him- 
self tae dae this kin’ o’ wark and a’ for 
naething.” They said the very pleasure 
of doing it was more than money or 
money’s worth, and the love and appre- 
ciation expressed in the faces of both old 
and young was reward enough for any 
self-denial on their part. 

Go to the foreign field by all means ; 
its need is great and the laborers but few 
compared with its millions ; but first take 
a look at your doorstep. See that you 
are not stepping over some poor creature 
on the very brink of perdition, who might 
be saved by a sympathetic look and a 
word fitly spoken. Stoop down as Jesus 
did. “ He humbled himself.” Jack’s 
grannie, speaking of the romance of mis- 
sions, was wont to say : “ Far-away birds 
hae bonny feathers.” The man who has 
the pluck and the tact to do mission 


ON GLASGOW GREEN 


35 

work at home is the kind of man needed 
abroad. 

The boy preachers were loved by these 
poor, neglected folk, because they brought 
themselves down to their level, using the 
language of every day and the simplest 
of illustrations to rivet the truths of the 
gospel upon the heart and the conscience. 
In the earnestness of speaking they were 
not afraid to violate rules of grammar 
and correct style. 

Until the season was well advanced 
God continued to prosper the Green 
meetings ; then provision had to be made 
for a service within doors. Jack obtained 
from his tutor the use of the borough 
school on the condition that he would 
heat it and keep it clean. It was agreed. 

“ It was no easy task,” said Jack, “ to 
tackle all this of a Lord’s Day morning 
before breakfast. First kindle a fire, 
then sweep out and dust the large room, 
act as usher, and then step to the desk 
to lead the devotions and tell the gos- 
pel message. The house cleaning could 
not be done before, as the room was used 
on the Saturday evening for cheap con- 


36 THE O’ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

certs.” They had to be care-taker and 
preacher by turns and were not ashamed 
of it. It was joyous service. 

God gave them the people, the Holy 
Spirit did his own work in their hearts, 
and quite a number were brought into 
the kingdom. Some of those people 
came long distances to listen to the boy 
preachers. 

The Lord’s Day was a day of services : 
early morning meeting in the borough 
school ; church prayer meeting at ten 
o’clock ; church service at eleven and at 
two; school at five. 

The Green meetings recall an extraor- 
dinary season of religious awakening 
and rich spiritual blessing. Hundreds 
were led to seek an interest in Christ, 
and the heroes of our story had no more 
useful days than those spent in the in- 
terests of the humble poor who fre- 
quented the Green. 


CHAPTER III 


jack foster’s dark days 


Man’s inhumanity to man 
Makes countless thousands mourn. 


OME of those poor folk said : “Jack 



Foster is nae cuif, but a lad o’ sense, 


and will yet be a useful man.” This to 
him was more than any other person’s 
approbation. He was himself a child of 
Providence and knew his Father’s care, 
and could read these poor folk like a book, 
as he had had much of their own hard ex- 
perience of life and its storm and stress. 
He had stood alone for years. God in 
Christ was the only near and good friend 
he had. No other young man of his 
acquaintance and at his time of life had 
a like experience. It had been painful, 
but it was priceless and of great service 
in a mission to help others. 

He was the son of a non-commissioned 
officer in the Royal Scots, who died when 


37 


38 THE O’ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

lie was but in his third year. He had 
but a dim shadowy memory of his father. 
He remembered being set up on a high 
chair to be shorn of his golden ringlets, 
and his mother’s tearful protest. Poor 
woman, she afterward had her own moth- 
er as well as her fatherless boy to sup- 
port ; but as long as grannie lived things 
prospered and home comforts were plen- 
tiful: 

But grannie died, looking to Jesus. 
Then there came the potato failure and 
the relapsing fever ; money grew scarce 
and work was difficult to obtain. Strug- 
gling folk could not pay their debts, 
neither could they purchase what was 
needful to keep them alive. “ In the 
memory of living man,” says Jack, “ there 
never was such a time.” 

From 1846 to 1850 the times were 
really serious. General poverty, dull 
trade, high-priced food, fell disease, Corn 
Laws agitation, Chartist movement, rad- 
ical politics, Repeal of the Union, revo- 
lutionary movements on the continent of 
Europe, and to crown all, the Smith 
O’Brien rebellion in Ireland. Some say 


JACK FOSTER’S DARK DAYS 39 

the Irish have been acting and talking 
rebellion ever since. As then so is it 
now, Home Rule simmered down is Rome 
rule, and the Roman hierarchy is re- 
sponsible for much of the agitation and 
its attendant mischief. 

Such at least was the opinion of Jean 
Doddridge, who was heard to say : u It’s 
no a very Christlike bit o’ business, but 
it is a way o’ haudin’ the people together, 
and of keeping them in the bosom o’ the 
church. Tae alloo them to see the bless- 
ings that come to a Bible readin’ nazhun, 
so as to hanker efter them, would be to 
lose them a’ together. The priests are 
lang-heided chiels, and believe in prac- 
tical politics, and ordinar’ Christian folk 
are nae match for them. When ye think 
ye hae them they are like the Eerish- 
man’s flea, ye put ye’r finger on it and 
it’s no there.” 

If they are to be kept good Romanists 
it is quite evident they must be kept quite 
separate in education and customs, and 
also encouraged to hate the heretical 
Saxon, the old-time enemy of his holi- 
ness the pope. At the period now under 


40 the o’erturn o’ botany bay 

consideration, the pope was on short ra- 
tions and was playing a mean, cowardly 
part. So thought Jean Doddridge, and 
not only did she think it but she said it. 

“ He huz just sneaked oot o’ Rome in 
wiman’s claes. He wou’dna meet like 
a man the faes o’ priestly superstition 
and oppression and political misrule. It 
wuzna Protestants that scared him out o’ 
his wits, but his ain bairns taught by the 
friars and the gude sisters. He huz had 
to rin awa’ frae the seat o’ universal au- 
thority tae tak’ shelter under the wing 
o’ ain o’ the Bourbons. And just think o’ 
it, he is the man wha claims the power 
to turn the wafer into the body and blood, 
the soul and divinity o’ our Lord Jesus 
Christ, and wha can bind and unloose 
the souls o’ men in either world. He 
micht hae turned a’ his enemies into 
frogs tae feed the French, his ardent ad- 
mirers and staun’ byes in a’ his extremi- 
ties.” 

Jean Doddridge was a woman amongst 
many. She knew both the Bible and 
the newspaper. She kept informed and 
was regarded by her neighbors as an an- 


JACK FOSTER’S DARK DAYS 41 

thority, a woman of sense and virtue. 
To hear that woman talk, and pray too 
if need be — “ She wuz as glide as ony 
minister,” at least so thought her ad- 
mirers. In the tenement where Jean 
lived she kept things lively. 

In the early days of 1846 Jack Foster 
suffered his greatest loss ; grannie died, 
and the loss was irreparable. She was a 
remarkable woman in her way, a mother 
in Israel, and more than his mother 
could be to Jack himself. He was her 
own bairn, the born picture of him with 
whom she, in the warmth of her young 
heart and with all its love, began life. She 
had taught him to read the New Testa- 
ment before he had reached his fifth 
year, and often prayed with him alone in 
the back shop, commending him to the 
good and the holy unseen One. On their 
knees in front of a kitchen chair, and on 
the sanded floor, grannie and her bairn 
would pray together. She would place 
one of her hands upon the laddie’s head, 
and would raise the other to the great 
Unseen Being, and with upturned face 
and heart, and voice lifted heavenward, 


42 THE O’ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

she would commend the wee fatherless 
boy to the only Father he now had, the 
heavenly One. 

It was an awesome place to Jackie, yet 
it was good to be with grannie in the 
back-shop speaking to the unseen Good 
Man. 

The battle of her old heart with God 
was about the laddie’s future. She 
seeme J d to have some strange presenti- 
ment that his life-path would be intricate, 
rugged, and thorny, too much for mere 
flesh and blood to o’ermaster. Her prayer 
was that he might have no less com- 
panionship in life than that of the Lord 
Jesus himself, and with that he would 
have good company all his days, and in 
the world to come life everlasting. 

She seemed to see in her wee boy 
latent powers of much evil or of great 
good, and the sight of life’s possibilities 
would make the old saint tremble all 
over. Her perceptions were aided by the 
family physician’s opinion, as he had the 
credit of being able to read heads. When 
Jackie was but a wee toddler he would 
go to visit the doctor, who would set 


JACK FOSTER’S DARK DAYS 43 

him lip on the counter of his apothecary, 
and then tell him all about his head, and 
say a short prayer for the “ wee mannie” 
who had not a father. Jackie never left 
Dr. Lauder’s without a bit of plaited 
rock candy, or a handful of rosebuds, 
which were the favorite sweetmeats then. 

Grannie poured out her heart to God 
in strong desire for a blessing 011 the wee 
boy and his future when her old head 
was laid in the grave. When she so 
prayed for him, he felt a strange myste- 
rious influence pervading the back-shop. 
There was One there to whom she could 
talk, whom she could see as she turned 
her face to the ceiling and poured out 
her heart before him. Jackie was made 
to feel that God was a real person who 
loved fatherless boys and took an interest 
in them, and would take care of him. 
Over-awed, chastened, spiritualized, he 
would rise from his knees to look about 
the room for God, but grannie herself 
was his dwelling-place. She “ walked 
with God ” all the day long. 

Grannie Foster was a member in good 
standing of Doctor Symington’s, or the 


44 the o’erturn o’ botany bay 

Cameronian Kirk, which was known to 
have in its communion many spiritual 
people well versed in the doctrinal, ex- 
perimental, and the practical parts of the 
Christian faith. They were regarded as 
“ a douce, bein people.” 

Jack’s mother was a woman of affairs, 
fighting a battle to which she was alto- 
gether pnequal. She had a small store, 
was all day behind the counter, and when 
not there was busy preparing something 
for sale that would earn a penny to meet 
her obligations. It was a sore battle she 
had with the world to obtain means 
enough to live honestly, giving each his 
own, but she was not treated with like 
honesty. In the midst of this desperate 
struggle to provide for herself and her 
fatherless wee boy she had to lay down 
her poor, weary, worn-ont body on a sick- 
bed, and died of a rapid decline. To her 
sick boy she had not a word to say at the 
last, but at the dead of the night she 
stole away to be with Jesus. On that 
wintry night, between night and morn- 
ing, she lay beside her boy, stiff, cold, 
and silent in death. 


JACK FOSTER’S DARK DAYS 45 

The laddie was laid down with re- 
lapsing fever, then an epidemic. He 
already had had eleven relapses and was 
making a brave fight to live. It was 
near to Christmas. In that house of the 
dead the laddie was alone. He had no 
one now in the world but God himself, 
and he must just await God’s time to see 
what he would do for him. 

The neighbors, Protestant and Catholic, 
were kind to him in their own way and 
for Katie’s sake, for to many of them she 
had been a friend in the dark hour of 
their extremity, and thereby had made 
herself poor. About the gray of the 
morning it got whispered around that 
the “ factor ” would sell all for rent and 
taxes, and that the sick boy would not 
get anything after the funeral expenses 
had been provided ; and so they reasoned 
that it would be no sin if they fell to and 
helped themselves to anything for which 
they had a liking. It was all for Katie’s 
sake. 

She was buried beside her own mother 
in Bridgetown Kirk yard, because in the 
High Kirk yard where her father lay, the 


46 THE O’ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

authorities would allow no more burials 
to take place. The funeral took place 
on a raw December day. It was plain, 
but decent, and largely attended by the 
neighbors. The coffin, with a mort-cloth 
over it, was borne upon spokes, and de- 
cent men took these in turn. The rela- 
tions were not there, as there was no one 
to inform them of what had taken place. 
The sick boy could not do it ; besides, 
nearly all were afraid of the awful fever 
then raging in the district. 

The wee boy by a tremendous effort 
of will power, rose from a fever bed to 
lay his mother’s head in the cold clay ; 
for it is a good Scottish custom that the 
nearest of kin should have the chief place 
at the grave in the lowering of the coffin. 

It is said that as he stood at the head 
of the grave as chief mourner, he looked 
a fright, weak and staggering, poorly 
nourished through his long illness, a face 
perfectly bloodless and blue, and to crown 
all he was shabbily and thinly clad. In 
the filling in of the grave the bystanders 
would look at him with tear-filled eyes 
and could be heard saying : 


JACK FOSTER’S DARK DAYS 47 

“ Katie’s wee boy deserved better than 
this ; God help the puir laddie, he has 
lost his a’ ! ” It was a sad satisfaction to 
lay his mother beside grannie, never to 
be forgotten. On returning from the 
burying ground he sauntered along alone, 
with his head full of strange noises and 
his heart sad and sore. His situation 
was incomprehensible. He soon found 
himself at his own door, but it was his 
no longer. The place was empty and 
the door was locked. He sat down on 
the cold stone step of the store door, and in 
wrestling with the storm within his own 
bosom, he had to set his teeth to restrain 
his emotions. Poor laddie, well might 
grannie wrestle much with God in your 
behalf. 

The house factor had been on the 
premises and everything had been re- 
moved. A broker had made a lump 
offer, which had been accepted, and the 
place had been given to the health officer 
for cleansing and disinfecting. 

Our little hero was not so well off as 
the little fellow taken in to one of our 
charitable institutions, who while being 


48 THE O’ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

stripped of his rags, which were thrown 
in a heap in a corner to be burned, 
pleaded with them to give him back a 
bit of rag he had hid away in his bosom. 
It was a bit of his mother’s gown, and 
was, said he : “ The onlie bit thing I hae 
to remind me o’ my mither.” Jack had 
nothing left. 

He sat on the doorstep, cold, stiff, and 
hungry, and tried to think out the strange 
situation in which he found himself that 
day in God’s providence. What was he 
to do? Where would he go? Who 
would give him shelter and a bit of 
bread ? He could not honor those who 
had robbed the dead and defrauded the 
orphan boy. Inwardly he kept saying : 

“Nae grannie noo, mither andfaether 
deid and nae onybody, but God himsel’, 
tae take care o’ me, dead me, and gie 
me an education. But grannie’s God, tae 
whom she was aye speaking, will take 
care o’ me and be the orphan’s faetlier 
and freen.” 

He sat there in the gloaming of that 
dark, cold, damp December day ; he could 
see nothing and did not desire to see or 


JACK FOSTER’S DARK DAYS 49 

to speak to any one, for his heart was 
full and like to burst. It looked to him 
as if there was no other world than that 
to which all his kin had gone, and he 
would go there too, be it God’s will. 

Hungry, cold, shivering, homeless, and 
fever-stricken, he would fain die too, and 
go to that “Happy land, far, far away,” 
of which he had sung so often in the 
Sunday-school, and about which grannie 
had often read to him from John’s Gospel 
and the Apocalypse. He has often said : 

“ It wuz the onlie time in a’ my event- 
fu’ life, and amid a’ its hard experiences 
o’ the world, that I had such a wish, and 
God wuz gude tae me in leaving it un- 
granted. If he had dune that day as I 
desired him, I would hae nae story to 
tell o’ the sad neglected families o’ Bot- 
any Bay, and love’s conquest, and the 
o’erturning o’ the place.” 

Jackie was sheltered by one of his 
mother’s friends, a companion of her girl- 
hood, but only to be set adrift again, as 
he had brought fever into the family. 
He was now to have a new experience. 
An Irish Roman Catholic had humanity 

D 


50 THE O’ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

enough to open his house to befriend the 
fever-stricken orphan boy. It was a 
Christian act, and it turned out to be a 
useful training for after life, as his bene- 
factor made an earnest effort to make him 
a good Romanist. 

From his ninth to his twentieth year, 
he had some strange experiences and 
hard, sore battles to fight to keep his head 
above water and himself alive, but the 
education and training which grannie 
gave him enabled him to fight his battle 
like a man. In the presence of evil and in 
the moment of greatest temptation, gran- 
nie, somehow, was always near-by. He 
could not do as others of his age did. 
He felt himself under a strange restraint. 
His life had a tinge of sadness, and no 
wonder. Many said in his hearing : “ He 
is ow’er auld for his years, and ow’er 
glide tae live lang.” To old people he 
felt strangely drawn and was wont to 
look before he leaped. 

For good reasons we must now let the 
curtain fall, and hide from view ten years 
of the laddie’s life. It would be too 
painful reading to most people. 


CHAPTER IV 


EARLY COMPANIONS 

There is no merit in seeing the sunlight at noon- 
day. We cannot doubt the existence of light when 
it blazes in our eyes. And when the gloom and 
chill are about us, have faith to believe that there 
is just as much light in the universe as ever, and 
that God will bring us again into its cheer. If we 
have faith, we shall have hope when sorrow is in 
our hearts and tears are in our eyes. 

He doeth all things well ; 

We say it now with tears, 

But we shall sing it with those we love 
Through bright eternal years. 

I N recounting Daddy Murtagh’s humane 
attentions, it should be said that he 
did his very best to win Jack to the 
Roman Catholic faith by taking him to 
early mass, and by inducing him to go to 
catechism on Sunday afternoons. But 
the whole thing did not commend itself 
to Jack’s reason, and the conduct of wor- 
shipers and pupils after services seemed a 

5i 


52 the o’erturn o’ botany bay 

strange outcome to all their prayers and 
persevering committal of the catechism. 
Their vespers contrasted strangely with 
the Protestant Sunday-school. Theirs 
were prayers and catechism, no Bible 
reading or explanation, no singing of 
Christian hymns to educate and cheer 
the heart and to foster the spirit of wor- 
ship, only the rehearsal of a lot of fool- 
ish legends about the church’s saints. 

To maintain discipline there was no 
appeal to the heart and the conscience, 
but a couple of big, fat priests armed 
with horsewhips walked up and down 
the large hall. It seemed a strange way 
of making people religious ! But it is 
their way, and in a manner it succeeds. 

The laddie could not credit the legends ; 
the demand on his credulity was too great. 
The history related to him, he could not 
see as consistent, as he had read the op- 
posite and knew too much scripture by 
rote to take on trust what was advanced 
in their books. “ Father Small ” did his 
utmost to win him. He was always 
sweet and nice to the lad. He loaned 
him books to convince him that the 


EARLY COMPANIONS 


53 


Church of Rome is the only church, but 
all to no purpose. In reading he was to 
use his own judgment in coming to a 
decision, but his chum, Dick Rodgers, 
dare not read any Protestant book, not 
even the Bible, to convince him of the 
opposite, only on pain of his losing his 
soul. A strange consistency ! 

All the prayers, the bobbing up and 
down in church and crossing of them- 
selves, he could not reconcile with their 
conduct on retiring from church service. 
Their free use of the name of God and 
of Christ made him shiver, and their 
filthy conversation vexed his soul. 

He had listened to Daddy Murtagh at 
his prayers, and his prayers were many 
and occupied time, for he was a member 
of the Holy Family and had the promise 
of an indulgence for so many prayers, 
and so he sought to buy up his opportu- 
nities. Jack had known him, while on 
his knees, to leave off praying to con- 
sign everybody in the room to the warm- 
est place in the other world for disturb- 
ing him in his devotions, and when he 
had relieved his mind he would set out 


54 the o’erturn o’ botany bay 

again to complete the number of his 
prayers to secure the indulgence — the ab- 
breviation of his suffering in purgatory. 
But his goings on made it purgatory to 
all in the house. 

Jack was not proselytized, 
but made some proselytes. 
Grannie’s teaching stood him 
well in the circumstances, for 
had he known less he might 
have been a poor deluded Ro- 
manist, instead of an intelli- 
gent Christian worker. 

Jack had nice chums by the 
name of Rodgers, who were 
Roman Catholics and who 
much against their own in- 
clination had to go to cate- 
chism and mix with a dirty, 
uncultured crowd from the 
Briggate and the Salt Mar- 
ket. It was arranged that he would go 
with them to their catechism, if they 
would go with him to Sunday-school. 
It was a bargain. 

He made no attempt to argue with 
them, and was careful not to wound their 



early companions 


55 


feelings, but just allowed the teaching by 
contrast to do its own work in them, and 
it did. They very soon saw the differ- 
ence between Rome and the gospel, not 
only in the working of the school, but in 
the instruction given to the pupils in at- 
tendance. 

Jamie, Dick, and Hughie broke with 
the Church of Rome, disgusted with her 
teachings and pagan practices and priest- 
ly tyranny, so also did three of Daddy 
Murtagh’s children. The two daughters 
were baptized on a profession of their faith 
in the Lord Jesus Christ. The defection 
sorely distressed their poor father, and 
made him rave and swear and threaten 
all manner of things, present and to come. 

Father Small and the Little Sisters of 
the Poor did all they could, by bribes of 
all kinds, to win them back to the bosom 
of the Church, but to no avail ; the fet- 
ters were broken. 

Daddy Murtagh never lost his interest 
in Jack Foster, but watched his after life 
with pride, and showed a most kindly 
spirit, even while he was actively en- 
gaged in Christian work. 


56 THE O’ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

111 after years he changed very much 
for the better, was more Christian in 
spirit, and no doubt became a spiritual 
man, and though he died in the bosom 
of the Church, he died looking unto Jesus 
in simple trust. 

He lived to see Jack a minister of the 
gospel, and he was a proud man, proud 
of the orphan boy he had sheltered, who 
had shared his table and picked up his 
trade by using his eyes. 

This insight into Romanism Jack found 
to be of great use in his mission work. It 
was a valuable training, the testing of his 
principles, and his grounding in the gos- 
pel. 

Silas Stirling at the outset was the 
better educated lad, inasmuch as he had 
his parents, a good home, and years of 
schooling in one of the best schools in 
the city. His father was what Glasgow 
folk would call “ a small manufacturer,” 
and besides, he was a deacon of the 
church and a disciple of the Haldanes, 
noted Baptists. Silas was the younger 
son of upright, godly parents. 

Jack’s ambition was to catch up to 


EARLY COMPANIONS 


57 


him in education, and through the gen- 
erous action of his employer he was 
able to attend evening classes. In other 
respects he was furnished for life’s bat- 
tle in a way that Silas never could be. 
Young as he was, he .was intimate with a 
cold, hard world. He knew by bitter ex- 
perience all its ins and outs, and there 
were but few of its many nooks unknown 
to him. He was the longer-headed of the 
two, and was generally regarded as “ a 
modest, quiet, obliging lad.” His em- 
ployer’s wife at least described him as 
such to the deacons, when they were ex- 
amining into his character before his re- 
ception for baptism. 

Silas was his exact opposite in temper- 
ament, a light-hearted, easy-going lad, 
full of song and frolic, and this may ac- 
count for the two being chums and stick- 
ing to each other so long in Christian 
work and at college. No two young men 
could be more bound up in each other. 
They had each other’s confidence, no 
secrets, and took no step without con- 
sultation. 

The elder and better educated of the 


58 THE O’ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

two had a terrible struggle to keep his 
mind clean and to speak a pure language. 
I11 early boyhood he had formed the vile 
habit of profane swearing, a habit which 
is to-day too common, and to him it had 
become a second nature. The tendency 
to give .way to it after his conversion was 
a sore trial, and often in tears he would 
say to his chum : 

“ Man Jack, my heart is sair. I hae 
catch’d mysel’ twa or three times the day 
in the very act o’ swearin’, but the words 
didna get oot tae be heard. I jist in the 
nick o’ time gripp’d them atween my 
teeth and held them there like a terrier 
wi’ a rat. Dae ye think God wull baud 
me guilty o’ takin’ his name in vain ? 
I didna mean it.” 

Silas Stirling had that of which there 
is a lack to-day, “ the fear of God and a 
sense of sin.” It was a struggle to de- 
liver himself from the giant power of an 
evil habit, even after he had given him- 
self up to Christ, but in the end grace 
triumphed and he glorified Jesus in the 
temple of his body. 

It would take too much time to de- 


EARLY COMPANIONS 


59 


scribe Jack’s onward and upward strug- 
gle from his ninth to his twentieth year; 
suffice it to say that it was a tough, sore 
fight ; but with God’s aid he held his own 
against all odds, and as the years gathered 
he kept gaining ground and still saw 
something yet ahead in the way of self- 
improvement. 

In a quiet corner of the workshop in 
spare moments he might be found glanc- 
ing over the rudiments of Latin or Greek 
preparatory to a college course. In this 
laudable pursuit he had no encourage- 
ment from his shop-mates, but the oppo- 
site. Everything possible was done to 
hinder him, and to keep him like them- 
selves. His ambition cost him much 
petty persecution, and nothing was left 
untried to make his life among them 
miserable, and also his employer an 
enemy. He was religious and they were 
not. He was a total abstainer, they were 
drinkers ; and so they stood far apart. 

Through floods and flames, if Jesus lead, 

I’ll follow where he goes ; 

Hinder me not, shall be my cry, 

Though earth and hell oppose. 


60 THE O’ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

This was the hymn sung when Jack 
Foster was about to be “ buried with 
Christ by baptism into death ” by pastor 
John Welchman. It was sung by a large 
and deeply interested congregation, and 
gave the keynote to Jack’s after life. It 
rang in his ears on the Green, it was in 
mind when he resolved in the name and 
power of Jesus to enter and take Botany 
Bay. It inspired him as he stood up on 
the outside stone stairway, which com- 
manded that long, narrow, dirty street, 
known as Botany Bay, to tell its sadly 
neglected denizens that God’s love was 
infinite and that grace abounded to the 
chief of sinners, that it was “ a faithful 
saying and worthy of all acceptation, 
that Christ Jesus came into the world to 
save sinners.” 

Jack had in a very large degree the 
soldier spirit, great will power, and a ten- 
der, sympathetic nature. He may have 
inherited it, as he belonged to a military 
family, and it was necessary for the work 
which God had allotted to him in life. 


CHAPTER V 


THE INVASION OF BOTANY BAY 

Saved ourselves by Jesus’ blood, 

Let us now draw nigh to God ; 

Many round us blindly stray, 

Moved with pity, let us pray, 

Pray that they who now are blind, 

Soon the way of truth may find. 

r T^HE meetings on the Green, in the 
meantime, were a big success, and 
much talked about, to the great annoy- 
ance of the lads, as it was their desire 
to toil on unnoticed until they gained in 
knowledge and experience, and gave evi- 
dence of fitness for public work. But 
it was in the very air about the Green 
meetings and the boy preachers. 

One Sunday morning at the close of 
the service, they were met at the church 
door by the pastor, who said : 

“ Ah, ha, my young men, what is this 
I am hearing about you ? I wish to have 
a few words with you.” 

61 



62 the overturn o’ botany bay 


Jack began to fear that he had heard 
some evil report which would be made 
the subject of inquiry by the deacons, as 
there was very strict discipline. 

you have 
set up as 
preach- 
ers, and 
are doing 
great 
things 
on the 
Green.” 
It was 
said in 
such a 
tone of 
voice as 
to leave 

Jack unassured as to whether the effort 
put forth on the Green met with his 
approval. The pastor at once noticed 
that the effect was other than he had 
intended, and so he said : “ I am not go- 
ing to scold you or find fault with you, 
but you might have taken counsel with 
me before setting out. I assure you I 


THE INVASION OF BOTANY BAY 63 

have 110 desire to hinder you in doing 
good ; but if you must preach, you need 
not go so far away as the Green to do it, 
you have only to cross over into Botany 
Bay. It is in our district, you know, 
and we as a people are responsible to 
God for the eternal salvation of those 
poor folk. Perhaps he means to use you, 
who knows ? to lead them to the Saviour. 
Promise me now that you will make the 
effort and at once.” 

They had witnessed the old mission- 
ary carried out by four stalwart police- 
men, wounded and gory, his only offense 
zeal for God and the sinner’s salvation. 
Jack was slow to own that he had ever 
preached on the Green or had even tried 
to do it. “ We have hummed two or 
three hymns, engaged in prayer, read a 
bit of Scripture, and done a little talking 
about the Saviour as the sinner’s friend, 
but it cannot be by any manner of means 
regarded as preaching.” 

Both promised that they would think 
over the minister’s proposal, seek from 
God grace and guidance, and if it should 
prove to be his will they would invade 


64 the o’erturn o’ botany bay 

Botany Bay in the name of the Lord 
Jesus. 

They did not relinquish the Green but 
added Botany Bay to the programme. 
Silas and Jack entered upon the campaign 
strongly moved by the sentiment of love 
for souls. The effort to be made had led 
them to serious thought and much prayer, 
as they felt how unequal they were to 
the work. It could not be done in their 
own strength, and it needed more than 
human wisdom. But having sought 
counsel of God they had committed 
themselves to it. 

They consulted with the chief of po- 
lice to know whether their venture met 
with his approval and would have his 
co-operation, if need be, in the event of 
trouble being made by the rowdy class. 

Jack met him in his office at the “ Cen- 
tral,” laid the case before him, explained 
to him their plan of operations, assuring 
him that it would be a peaceable inva- 
sion, and that past mistakes would be 
avoided if at all possible. He approved 
of their plan of work and said that police- 
men would be told off for special service, 


THE INVASION OF BOTANY BAY 65 

and be within an easy distance ready to 
respond to the first call ; but they were 
never once required in all the campaign. 

O11 Sunday during the interval of 
worship, from half past twelve to two 
o’clock, the boy preachers, armed with 
a bundle of gospel tracts, invaded Bot- 
any Bay, going from door to door, ex- 
plaining to the people what they were 
disposed to do in the way of supplying 
them with a religious service and ex- 
pressing a desire to know whether such 
a service would be acceptable to them 
on Sunday evening. The people were 
assured that the offer was prompted by 
love, and that the only aim was their 
good. 

The laddies were kindly received and 
their treatment was beyond all expecta- 
tion. The majority were in favor of the 
service as explained to them. Only two 
families objected ; one was a Roman 
Catholic family, the other ran a she- 
been and evaded the Sunday law. The 
head of the Roman Catholic family said : 

“ We are not ove your relaigion and 
do not need it. We have our own church, 


66 THE O’ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

which is the thrue church and it’s good 
enouf fur uz at any time, any day, rain 
or shine. You need not give uz your 
ould tracts full of devil’s lies. You had 
better kape thim, for we would only tear 
thim or put thim in the fire, the only fit 
place for them.” 

After a little good-natured chaffing, 
the effort to be made was more fully ex- 
plained, and then all opposition was with- 
drawn on the condition that the preach- 
ing was not to be opposite their doors ; 
they were of the opinion that their feel- 
ings ought to be respected. But there 
was another family who volunteered the 
use of their stairway as a preaching stand, 
and this gave the speakers the control of 
the whole street. 

The negotiations made a tremendous 
demand upon Jack’s nervous system, as 
the real battle was more with himself 
than with the people, fitting himself into 
the situation as it opened up to him. 

The preliminaries settled, it was time 
for the afternoon service and the admin- 
istration of the Lord’s Supper, a weekly 
observance at that time. They entered 


THE INVASION OF BOTANY BAY 67 

the church with grateful and subdued 
hearts. A victory had been won in Bot- 
any Bay, and they felt themselves in a 
fit frame to sing as never before : 

Praise God from whom all blessings flow, 
Praise him all creatures here below. 

After Sunday-school — for both taught 
in the school — they retired into one of 
the vestries to entreat God by prayer to 
grant unto them the special guidance of 
the Holy Spirit that all might be done 
wisely and well and to his glory. Rising 
from their knees and punctual to the mo- 
ment, they were in Botany Bay at half 
past six. 

The people were eagerly on the out- 
look, the outside stairways were jammed 
with hearers, every window was thrown 
open and black with heads, and the nar- 
row roadway was filled up with an eager 
throng. There never had been such a 
day before in the history of the place. 
The service was opened with the singing 
of McCheyne’s beautiful hymn : 

I once was a stranger to grace and to God, 

And knew not my danger and felt not my load, 


68 the o’erturn o’ botany bay 

Though friends spoke in rapture of Christ on the 

tree, 

Jehovah Tsidkenu, ’twas nothing to me. 

This hymn was so sung that the in- 
habitants could not know that it was not 
an original composition and their own 
heart’s expression of love to Jesus. It 
was sung with deep feeling and hearty 
expression and captivated the crowd. 

Jack read the fifteenth chapter of Luke’s 
Gospel, giving a running comment, then 
there was prayer by Silas, giving the 
heart free rein to talk with God himself 
in behalf of the people of Botany Bay. 
It was an earnest, simple, direct, sensible 
prayer. The people so felt and seemed 
to be awed and subdued by it. 

The opening exercises prepared the 
people for the rest, and their freedom in 
prayer enabled the young men to meas- 
ure their own powers, gauging their 
liberty and tenderness of heart in ad- 
dress. 

According to agreement Jack was to 
take the opening address. His talk was 
on the “ lost sheep,” the shepherd leaving 


THE INVASION OF BOTANY BAY 69 

the bulk of his flock safe in the fold and 
setting out in search for the lost one. 

He had seen shepherd life in the West- 
ern Highlands, and had witnessed the 
rescue of a poor lost sheep, sick and 
wounded and ready to die. Caught in 
the wool by a whin bush, it hung over 
the face of a cliff ready to drop into the 
abyss beneath. He graphically described 
the heart, the daring, and self-sacrifice 
of the earthly shepherd in the rescue of 
the lost sheep, and his joyful triumphant 
return after its recovery. 

He then spoke of the loving Jesus, 
Son of God and Son of Man, the little 
child, the grown lad, inured to labor and 
privations, and leading a humble life, a 
man among men, the Son of God, the 
manly man, the all-sympathizing man, 
the self-sacrificing man, treading our life 
path in all its dark mazes, ever making 
the lowly poor his particular care, min- 
istering as he went to suffering and 
need, enlightening its ignorance, easing 
its burdens, and then on the cross with 
all its ignominy and suffering, giving 
his life a ransom for many. 


7 O THE o’erturn o’ botany bay 

He showed how the Son of God as the 
Son of Man was searching after the lost 
sheep, and how the way of the cross was 
God’s way of delivering them, as they 
hung over the cliff caught by some evil 
besetmdnt, with the abyss beneath a tor- 
turing hell. He told them that they 
knew themselves what they were, away 
from God and rectitude and everything 
pure and holy. They knew that they 
were not what they once were, even with- 
in the reach of memory. 

He reminded them of childhood’s days, 
its innocence and purity, their early Chris- 
tian education and training, the prayer 
they had been taught at their mother’s 
knee, and mother’s prayers and tears on 
their account. A mother was, perhaps, 
with Jesus in the better land, and a 
mother’s interest might follow them still. 
They were besought in all tenderness to 
allow Jesus to save them while salvation 
was possible. It was earnest, passionate, 
loving, pleading, one heart giving out its 
love to many hearts in wonderful full- 
ness. Strong men at once broke down 
and wept like bairns, and the women 


THE INVASION OF BOTANY BAY 7 1 

folk sobbed right out and bewailed their 
sinful, lost condition. The place became 
a Bochim. 

May we not think that God’s angels 
looked down with holy interest on Bot- 
any Bay that night, and the Lord Jesus 
saw of the travail of his soul in those 
poor penitents? He was the uplifting of 
the place as he was uplifted in faith and 
love. 

Silas followed Jack, emphasizing what 
had been said, opening to them the vol- 
ume of his own experience, and drawing 
a picture of the “Prodigal’s Return.” 
With a hymn and a prayer the service 
closed. Suitable reading was distributed, 
inquirers beset them, Botany Bay was 
open to the gospel of the grace of God. 
It was a triumph of grace and a modern 
miracle ! 

The effort put forth in love by the boy 
preachers met with 110 remonstrances, 
neither were they hit by broken bottles. 
Love conquered, because the preachers 
themselves were love’s conquest. God 
had honored them, and they wept for joy 
that Botany Bay had received the saving 


72 the o’erturn o’ botany bay 

message that day. It was far into the 
night before they could close their eyes 
in sleep. 

The hand had been put to the plow ; 
there ipust be no looking backward and 
no weak-kneed effort. The battle must 
be pushed to the gates, and now that the 
enemy had been attacked Jack would 
rather die than retreat. The situation 
demanded heroism of a high order. 

There was to be regular service every 
Sunday evening, weather permitting. 
The pastor was delighted with the suc- 
cess achieved, and at the Wednesday 
evening prayer meeting made special 
mention of the evangelization of Botany 
Bay, and made request for special prayer 
for its success. Then prayer was offered 
as never before for “ the puir folk ow’er 
in Botany Bay, that God would in love 
lead their hearts tae himsel’.” God had 
made their own hearts tender and big 
enough to hold the erring ones in affec- 
tion. 

Some of the friends who had stood 
aside in unbelief and moral cowardice, 
afraid to accompany the young heralds 


THE INVASION OF BOTANY BAY 73 

on their errand of mercy, now volun- 
teered their assistance and began to pray 
for the success of the work and for Satan’s 
overthrow in the district. 

The evangelistic work 011 the follow- 
ing Sunday was like that of the preced- 
ing one. The service was just as appro- 
priate and earnest, the crowd quite as 
great, the interest intensified, and the re- 
ception even more cordial. Some of the 
hardest cases, both men and women, ap- 
peared looking sober and rational, a very 
uncommon thing for them on a Sunday 
evening in Botany Bay. 


CHAPTER VI 


WAYS OF PREACHING 
There is no true orator who is not a hero. 

— Emerson. 

J ACK FOSTER had an ideal ; he had 
received it as a seedling- from his 
Cameronian grandmother and it had 
been fostered in his own mind by the 
biographies of Brainerd, Payson, White- 
field, Carey, Knibb, Williams, and others. 
He had an ideal ! A fire at times burned 
in his bones as to missionary life. His 
spirit was too big for his weak body, and 
his weak body was a brake on the run- 
ning gear of his unselfish life. On ac- 
count of his prolonged sickness and hard 
usage in boyhood, he had not the physical 
strength he now seemed to possess, but he 
had great will power. He was of medium 
height, squarely built, muscular, broad- 
shouldered, with large head, gray eyes, 
and blonde complexion. In tempera- 
74 
















•• 
























j6 THE O’ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

ment, nervous, sympathetic, and impul- 
sive. Some were not slow to say: “He 
is a born orator.” In address lie was 
simple, direct, and persuasive. His sub- 
ject and^audience to him were everything 
and Jack Foster nothing. Christ was 
all, and he must be heard. Had he lived 
in the days of St. Francis, that good man 
might have had a disciple. Unselfish- 
ness and gospel simplicity were the aim 
of his life, and he could see no other 
pathway open to usefulness, or to a happy, 
peaceful end. 

He was blamed by some for preaching 
an impracticable gospel, simply because 
in opening the Scriptures he showed that 
the gospel is a life as well as a creed, 
and that the life is the product of one’s 
trust, not only in the crucified Jesus, but 
also in the Jesus who rose from the dead, 
who lives and is possessed of all power 
in heaven and in earth, and who is ever 
present with his faithful ones — true to 
his own promise. He showed that eter- 
nal life is in him, and in us by our union 
with him by faith, and not in the sacra- 
ments. “ I am crucified with Christ, 


WAYS OF PREACHING 


77 


nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ 
liveth in me, and the life which I now 
live in the flesh, I live by the faith of 
the Son of God who loved me and gave 
himself for me.” u What ! know ye not 
that your body is the temple of the Holy 
Ghost, which is in you, which ye have 
of God, and ye are not your own? For 
ye are bought with a price ; therefore 
glorify God in your body and in your 
spirit, which are God’s.” Jack’s life song 
would be, “ Christ is all.” The doctrine 
was too strong from one so young. 

Silas Stirling, some time after he had 
taken a college course and while a stu- 
dent in theology, was called upon to 
address a kitchen meeting of poor hum- 
ble folk. When the service closed Mrs. 
MacWhirter, one of his aforetime ad- 
mirers, stepped up to the front and 
thanked him for his fine, helpful dis- 
course and ventured the remark : 

“ I liked you much better, Silas, before 
you got grammar and the use of big 
words. Surely you are going to be a 
professor, but you should have some pity 
upon poor folk who have got but little 


78 THE O’ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

education and who are out of the reach 
of high-flown English.” 

It is true he did not feel himself flat- 
tered by the observation that he was 
spoiled by his grammar, but it awakened 
in him the consciousness that he had 
made an advance, when it was noticeable 
to her. But Mrs. MacWhirter’s observa- 
tion was worth thinking out in more 
than one direction. 

Culture and good style ought to be the 
aim of every student, but culture is not 
everything, as some would make us be- 
lieve, for effective gospel preaching ; but 
self-adaptation is also necessary. Men 
admire men but detest dandies and af- 
fectation. 

It might not be very dignified to talk 
to a roomful of poor people as Jack Fos- 
ter sometimes did, if judged by ordinary 
rules. He talked in the broad doric of 
his mother tongue deliberately, remem- 
bering that a kitchen meeting was not 
the class-room, and that his audience 
were not students, but a roomful of poor, 
illiterate people, hungering for spiritual 
food, the bread of heaven. When re- 


WAYS OF PREACHING 


79 


bilked by a fellow-student for using the 
doric in addressing those poor people, 
his reply was : 

“ In a situation like this a man must 
get down from his stilts and use the feet 
which nature has given him, and do it 
very humbly too. Where does dignity 
come in, in love’s earnest effort to com- 
pass the sinner’s salvation? The only 
begotten of the Father as the Son of 
man humbled himself and became obe- 
dient unto death. Where was the dig- 
nity ? It was all ignominy and self- 
abasement. Let dignity perish in such 
circumstances as compassing the sinner’s 
salvation, and allow love and good sense 
to prevail. If it will soften a human 
heart and bring a poor lost sinner to the 
feet of Jesus, to get beneath his eye and 
catch his kindly look, and to hear him 
say as of yore, ‘ Thy sins are forgiven 
thee ’ — use the doric, and let the crutches 
go to the wall. It is worth using when 
what is worth more than the world 
is at stake.” This was Jack’s opinion. 
He noted the difference between reading 
an essay to a roomful of students, and a 


8o THE O’ERTURN o’ BOTANY BAY 

company of poor old folk met together 
to listen to a gospel talk. He saw them 
to be as far apart as heaven and earth. 

Jack had a theory of his own, well 
tested, as to open air preaching and how 
to manage it. It was simply this : “ Open 
by singing a hymn of experience, a solo, 
and by degrees the people will gather 
around the singer. Then read one of the 
parables and give a running comment, 
and offer prayer ; pray to God and not at 
the people, and do not talk to God as if 
he needed a lot of information about his 
own world, the ways of his providence, 
and the kind of people in the world. 
Let it be ‘ prayer and supplication with 
thanksgiving.’ In addressing the peo- 
ple start on a low key, then gradually 
raise your pitch as you warm up and 
gain in grip of your subject, or as it gets 
a grip of you. To be in the grip of 
your subject is to be in grips with your 
audience ; you hold it. If the voice at 
the outset is pitched too high it will 
break before the speaker is half through 
with his discourse, besides, the people 
will not be around him as interested 


WAYS OF PREACHING 


8l 


hearers, but will remain only at a dis- 
tance as spectators. One’s aim ought to 
be to get the people and to hold them 
until he has told his message and de- 
livered himself from the blood of all. 
Manner and voice as well as subject have 
much to do with success in the open air.” 

A dog fight will speedily attract a 
crowd of men and boys, and hold them 
magnetized. A crowd draws a crowd. 
Curiosity moves the masses. The longer 
the fight lasts, the greater the number 
anxious to see it. Jack tells of a dog 
fight which drew a bigger crowd together 
in a shorter space of time than any preach- 
ing service could do : 

u In a fashionable thoroughfare of the 
city, two dogs of different breeds met and 
eyed each other in a dignified and rather 
contemptuous manner, and then circled 
’round and ’round each other, and sniffed 
and snarled, eying each other in the 
most ugly and threatening way, their 
eyes at times giving out sparks of anger. 
Then suddenly with a gurry-worry, 
they gat each other by the throat, and 
simply held on with a deathly grip. It 

F 


82 THE O’ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

was an up and down tussle. First the 
one and then the other would be on top. 
It looked as if they would go on in this 
way until there was nothing left of them 
but their tails as mementos of the strug- 
gle for mastery. A dog fight is attractive 
to masculine human nature, and very 
soon gathers a crowd, and men take sides 
as to the winning one or the gamer one 
of the two. 

“ When the crowd was satisfied that 
the dogs had fought long enough, some 
of its illustrious members set about sep- 
arating them, pulling them apart by the 
tails, taking first one and then the other, 
but the stronger the pull, the more vi- 
cious the brutes became, as it just made 
them gurry- worry, gurry-worry each 
other all the more. It was just frightful 
to see how the dogs did it. Other mem- 
bers of the crowd in their superior wisdom 
saw fit to attempt a separation of the 
dogs by kicking them about the head, 
but it did not work the way they ex- 
pected. It only aggravated the situa- 
tion, and they kept on gurry- worrying 
each other. It is the brute’s nature, and 


WAYS OF PREACHING 83 

it may be there is a little of it in the 
human. 

“ It is a matter for thankfulness that 
folk are not all silly and stupid. Some 
have a grain of sense left them, and it 
helps to save the majority. In the very 
moment of the dogs’ extremity, and the 
crowd’s litter helplessness to put a stop 
to the fight, an old Hieland man, who had 
been a silent spectator, brawly and 
bravely elbowed his way through the 
crowd, saying, as he made his elbows do 
their best work : 

“ 1 Haud oot the gait, haud oot the gait 
(keep out of the way), ye lot o’ gaumrals 
(silly folk). Ye no understan’ pizness, 
or hoo tae manage tae togs.’ 

“ There he stood inside the ring, near 
the dogs, and looked on the situation 
philosophically. Suddenly he thrust the 
finger and thumb of his right hand into 
his vest pocket, and brought out a tor- 
toise-shell box, which he tapped on the 
lid and then opened with a look of satis- 
faction on his broad, bronzed face. Put- 
ting his finger and thumb into the open 
box he took out a pinch of Taddy’s 


84 the o’erturn o’ botany bay 

snuff, and put one half in one nostril, 
and half in the other, and sniffed it up 
into the regions of his intellectuality. 
He was refreshed and felt in a mood now 
for business, and the crowd was all ex- 
pectation. He then took out another 
pinch of ‘ Taddy’s Genuine,’ and held it 
for a moment between finger and thumb, 
and looked thoughtful, waiting his op- 
portunity, and then aiming fair, he qui- 
etly and slyly slipped into the eye of 
the nigh dog one-half of the pinch, and 
the other half of it went into the eye of 
the off dog. 

“ Like a flash of lightning they got 
out of grips, with a blood-curdling un- 
earthly yell, y-o-u-1, y-o-u-1, youl, and 
made off like sixty between the legs of 
the crowd of men and boys. It was just 
magnificent. Every one was like to leap 
out of his boots, and the crowd broke, 
every one taking to his heels in terror of 
being bitten by the maddened brutes, 
and so the crowd was dispersed more 
quickly than it gathered. 

“The Hielandman lingered, smiled in- 
wardly, wonderfully well pleased with 


WAYS OF PREACHING 85 

himself, and highly amused at the be- 
haviour of the crowd. 

“The Hieland man understood dog na- 
ture, and the effectiveness of Taddy’s 
snuff to subdue brute pertinacity. He 
was a man o’ sense. One has to know 
something of the human animal, and 
how to manage him if one would win 
him to a better life. Something more is 
needed than an intimacy with books and 
the dead languages.” 


CHAPTER VII 


A CAMPAIGN PLANNED 


The only conclusive evidence of a man’s sin- 
cerity, is that he gives himself for a principle. 
Words, money, all things else are comparatively 
easy to give away, but when a man makes a gift 
of his daily life and practice, it is plain that the 
truth, whatever it may be, has taken hold of him 
and has him in its possession. 


— James Russell Lowell. 



S the gospel had now gained a foot- 


i\ ing in Botany Bay, the pastor, 
who was deeply interested in its success, 
counseled a series of special services 
and the throwing open of the church in 
connection with them. A nightly serv- 
ice in the Bay, to be followed by one in 
the church, was proposed. The people 
were to be invited at the close of the 
open-air service to attend the church serv- 
ice, just as they stood, unwashed, un- 
kempt, and in dishabille, as it was a 
“workingman’s” service. 


86 


A CAMPAIGN PUNNED 


87 

In the Briggate the Rev. Dougald 
MacColl had just such a service and it 
was a success, and why not such a serv- 
ice for Botany Bay ? 

I11 moving upon Botany Bay for Chris- 
tian conquest, there was now to be con- 
certed action. The work had pressed 
itself upon a number of young hearts 
valiant for the Lord and enthusiastic in 
evangelization. The pastor was at the 
head of the movement. All these young 
people were either directly or indirectly 
the fruit of his own loving and faithful 
ministry of the word. He was one of 
those men who would never think of 
setting another to do that from which he 
shrank himself. His policy was not, “ You 
go and do that,” but, “ Come and let us 
do it,” and then lead in it. 

He was abundant in labors, loved to 
preach the gospel in all its fullness, and 
was not afraid to preach it in the open 
air in public places. I11 fact it was on 
the Green in “auld Broad-brim’s” pul- 
pit, that Jack first made his acquaintance, 
and there had his heart softened by his 
presentment of the gospel. 


88 THE O’ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

Pastor Welchman labored for and ex- 
pected conversions, through the preach- 
ing of the word, and God gave him to 
see the fruit of his labors and permitted 
him to gather a large church of warm- 
hearted, active Christian workers. But 
to guide, control, and lead such a large 
number of young hearts intent on ag- 
gressive Christian work, was no easy 
matter. Christian democracy is a very 
fine thing, but it needs an autocrat at the 
head of it. On the whole his adminis- 
tration was wise, firm, and tender, and 
he endeared himself to all. Yet he had 
his difficulties and was seen to weep time 
and again over them. In the governing 
of others and in the building up of Chris- 
tian character, every man loyal to Jesus 
has difficulties. The Master himself had 
his difficulties. Some of his immediate 
followers in the beginnings of the gospel 
showed themselves to be only men — 
narrow-minded, self-seeking, impulsive, 
vindictive, and at times, cowardly men. 
Grace in them, as in ourselves, had to do 
its work. It was a work of time, and the 
Spirit of God, through the teaching of 


A CAMPAIGN PLANNED 89 

Jesus, made men of them like their Mas- 
ter. 

In this little company enlisted for the 
Lord’s service in Botany Bay there were 
some braw lads, spiritual fellows, well 
read in the Holy Scriptures, and men of 
prayer, expectant of great things from 
God and ready to attempt great things 
for him. The council of war called con- 
sisted of the pastor, the youngest dea- 
con, Dick Mossman, Andy and Alec Man- 
son, Eben MacLaren, Rob Boyd, Dave 
Lawson, Silas Stirling, and Jack Foster, 
and a number of godly young women, 
who were ready to assist in the singing, 
distribute tracts, or talk to the inquirers. 

It was evident they expected to win 
in the Lord’s battle, and that they never 
for a moment thought that the people 
over in Botany Bay were beyond the reach 
of the grace of God, or that it could do 
nothing for them. They knew its power 
and blessedness in their own lives, and 
believed with all their heart that what 
the gospel had done for them it could 
do for the worst as well as the best of 
men. In their fellow-believers they had 


90 THE O’ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

seen the powerful workings of divine 
grace and the reflected beauty of the 
Lord. 

The following programme, after much 
prayer and a sober, earnest, candid can- 
vass of the whole matter, was adopted : 
Silas Stirling and Jack Foster were to 
conduct the open air service in Botany 
Bay, and as many as possible were to go 
over to assist in the singing. At the 
close, the people were to be invited to go 
over to the service in the church, just as 
they were, lialf-clad and unwashed. 

The pastor was to preside at all the 
services, but the conduct of the meeting 
was to be in the hands of the young men 
and entirely free from anything that 
would lend the suspicion of officialism or 
priestly control. The prayers were to 
be brief, direct, and scriptural, and the 
requests sincere and definite. The ad- 
dresses were to be short, crisp, and evan- 
gelical. Nothing like a sermon was to 
be attempted. No one was to speak unless 
he had really something to say for which 
his heart and conscience would condemn 
him if he left it unsaid. Each address 


A CAMPAIGN PLANNED 91 

was to be in favor of the gospel and 
a commendation of it to the people of 
Botany Bay as a something that had 
been tried and found to be all that was 
claimed for it by Christian men. 

There was to be an inquirer’s meeting 
at the close of each service, and all were 
to be encouraged to remain. As many as 
possible were to aid in it and all difficult 
cases were to be handed over to the pas- 
tor to be dealt with by him. 

If the Lord gave them any of the peo- 
ple for Christ and the church, and they 
should desire to unite by a public profes- 
sion of their trust in him, all were to be 
received who gave evidence that Christ 
had received them, and this independent 
of past history, present circumstances, or 
their surroundings. No one was to be 
discarded because of dress, condition of 
person or purse, or nature of employment. 

It was argued, “ Christ Jesus came into 
the world to save sinners,” and not saints, 
and to lift men morally and socially, and 
after he had lifted them it would be made 
manifest. They would rise in the social 
scale, appreciate cleanliness, be better 


92 THE O’ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

clad, better fed, and have something to 
give for the maintenance of ordinances 
and the propagation of the gospel. If 
the Holy Ghost did his own work through 
the preaching of the word, in time it 
would show itself. 

In the meantime all were to be patient, 
tender, and charitable, and to treat poor 
people as they themselves would like to 
be treated, and in this way they would 
aid God and the Holy Spirit to do his 
own work in the hearts of the Botany 
Bay people. 

It was a blessed conference and the 
fruits of it abide unto this day. It was 
an honest attempt to get down to sim- 
plicity and gospel helpfulness, and to 
arrive at something better than the so- 
called institutional church. In the adop- 
tion of the programme there was remark- 
able agreement, and its adoption laid 
the foundation of that church’s future as 
a spiritual power in the city. 

“ It does seem strange,” remarked Jack 
after this meeting, “ that there should be 
in the professedly Christian church, what 
one might term big, small men, whose 


A CAMPAIGN PUNNED 93 

only mission is to block the way of a 
gospel of reconciliation, a com mon-sense 
gospel adapted to men of every condition 
of life, and of every clime ; men who will 
not fellowship the poor man or give him 
a lift out of the social pit-hole into which 
he has fallen ; small men, who forget 
their own humble life-beginnings in the 
battle for wealth and comforts and social 
status, and who now talk glibly of so- 
ciety’s demands, and a gospel of culture 
and refinement ; men who would hive 
off the poor by themselves, because their 
garments are not up to the knocker as 
to style or quality, and because the pen- 
nies do not jingle in their pockets. The 
talk of these empty-headed upstarts is 
enough to make a cuddy laugh and the 
ass, it is allowed, is a very sedate, dis- 
creet brute. 

“ The despised poor are often found 
to be brainy, big-hearted, sensible, God- 
fearing men, clean every whit. It is 
this cursed social ostracism and worldly 
feeling that makes organized religion 
only a semblance of, and not the gospel 
itself, crucifying Christ afresh and the 


94 THE overturn o’ botany bay 

putting of him to an open shame. Purse 
pride is the most offensive of all pride. 
The Lord Jesus has no place for it in the 
heart and life of his followers. Their 
mission is to reconcile men to God. It 
is the church’s mission to turn men from 
darkness unto light and from the power 
of Satan unto God.” 

Such also was the opinion of Deacon 
Manson, a man that no one dare oppose 
in his opinion, as he was mighty in the 
Scriptures, a man of prayer, a good man. 

Deacon Manson was the father of a 
numerous and godly family. He was a 
shoemaker by trade and a native of Kil- 
maurs. He had great liberty in prayer, 
a fine grip of gospel truth, could state 
his opinion with weight, and was held in 
great respect. He was able to rule well 
his own house, and was one of the church’s 
substantial pillars. He was poor, but 
manly and upright, spiritual and intelli- 
gent, and to him the promise was ful- 
filled, “Thy children shall all be taught 
of God.” 

His house in the Gorbals was open to 
the young men for prayer and Bible 


A CAMPAIGN PLANNED 


95 


study, and to seek fitness for Christian 
service, and to practise the deacon’s ideas 
as the very marrow of the gospel. He 
was one of God’s aristocracy, though liv- 
ing in a house of two rooms and a kitchen 
in an obscure street. 

He had been elected to the deacon’s 
office because of his intellectual, moral, 
and spiritual qualities, and was likely to 
purchase for himself a good degree. 
When a man is not strictly honest and 
benevolent in his dealings with others, 
he is apt to be what the Scotch call 
shackally (a poor walker) as a Christian, 
afraid of the sound of his own voice, and 
ready to turn aside from his own shadow. 

As a man fit for the deacon’s office, 
Daddy Manson was Jack’s ideal : “ A 
saintly man who could visit the sick, 
sympathize with the afflicted, and minis- 
ter to them spiritually. He had more 
of the useful and less of the ornamental 
than any other man I have ever met 
with in church life. He was a spiritual 
boon to the young, struggling congrega- 
tion and a great source of strength and 
comfort to the pastor. He was not an 



96 THE O’ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

ill-looking man, medium height, well 
built, with a handsome open face, and a 
pleasant manner of address, a gaucy man 
(stately in appearance). 


“ Mrs. Manson was a fit companion for 
one filling the deacon’s office. She was 
a woman of fine bearing and sweet coun- 
tenance, had a kind, motherly heart, 


A CAMPAIGN PLANNED 97 

abounded in good deeds, and was a woman 
of few words. Two words from her on the 
subject of personal religion were worth 
a hundred from any other of the women 
folk of the congregation. 

“ Margery lived very near to God, loved 
the gospel, was Spirit filled, had a warm 
heart to all Christian people, and was 
queenly in her poverty. She was to all 
the young men who met at her house 
for prayer and Bible study a sympathetic 
mother, and was often consulted by them 
in practical matters to profit.” 

Jack says : “ The deacon took an in- 
terest in me from the beginning. He 
was interested in my history, dealt kindly 
with me as a lad bereft of all my kindred 
and out alone on life’s great sea. He 
won my respect and lived in my affec- 
tions. He was a father in Israel, and 
when God took him to himself by a 
mysterious providence, every one felt he 
had lost a friend ; and to the church the 
loss was irreparable. But to the young 
people Margery was more dear than ever. 
I11 her widowhood her influence did not 
wane, but grew more healthful and help- 

G 


98 THE O’ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

ful. The young women as well as the 
young men profited by her saintly, useful 
life. Oh, that such lives could be multi- 
plied in every center of population! It 
would be to the greater glory of God in 
the spread of the gospel. A selfish, 
extreme individualism to-day mars the 
beauty of the gospel and robs it of its 
power as the word of reconciliation.” 


CHAPTER VIII 


A WONDERFUL, EVENING 

There shall be showers of blessings, 
Precious reviving again. 

A S the weeks passed the interest in the 
meetings did not wane, but it grew 
more manifest. The days were getting 
shorter and the evenings chilly, and an 
indoor service in Botany Bay was much 
to be desired. It was time for the pro- 
posed movement. At the close of the 
first week-night service Jack broached 
the propriety of an indoor service, and 
told his hearers how the main audience 
room of the church had been placed at 
their disposal, and that the service was 
for all of them just as they stood in their 
work clothes. There was no time for 
a clean-up, and in the circumstances no 
need of it, either. The sooner it began 
the earlier would they get home to their 
other duties. He said : 

L.efC. 


99 


ioo the o’erturn o’ botany bay 

“ Come away, just as you are. Fol- 
low me, and do not be a bit blate or 
bashful, for all the folk you will meet 
there are just working people like your- 
selves. Come over with me, every one 
of you, old and young and middle-aged. 
The service is for everybody and all are 
welcome.” In response to this hearty in- 
vitation, there was quite a movement of 
the crowd of outdoor worshipers. The 
least expected were the very first to fall 
into line in that eventful march out of 
Botany Bay to enter a house of worship. 

Heading them all was that wonderful 
woman, “ Coal Jean,” who lived in the 
first house on the right-hand side as you 
entered the Bay. She had a small shop 
or store, and sold milk, bread, and coals. 
As she led in the procession, her face and 
her hands were all begrimed with coal 
gum, or dust, for she had to shovel and 
weigh out coal in small quantities to suit 
the purse of her customers. She was a 
woman of ordinary size, but muscular, 
had a nice, pleasant face, a big heart, and 
an open hand. She wore a calico dress, 
a drugget apron, both the worse for wear, 


A WONMRFUIv EVENING 


IOI 


and a white linen cap, or mutch , with 
fluted border, which, owing to her occu- 
pation, was not very clean. She was not 
tidy or the least churchlike, but it was 
a triumph of divine grace to get her to a 
place of worship in any condition. 

“ Jean ” was fond of a dram ; perhaps 
she thought she needed it to clean out 
her bronchial apparatus, for owing to the 
coal dust settling on her lungs, she was 
at times a little bit wheezy and short of 
breath. But in the use of whisky she 
sometimes went too far for her own good. 
She was a good-hearted, social creature, 
but a sore affliction to her own man, a 
mean creature, and now more so than 
ever, when she was likely to become re- 
ligious. 

“ Jean ” led the way, and the rest of 
the Botany folk followed her, and, after 
all, it was a queer crowd to take to a 
house of worship. She followed closely 
on Jack Foster. There was no turning 
back at the door, but in she marched at 
the head of an army and held on her 
way until she was well up the aisle, and 
then around she wheeled to look for her 


102 the o’erturn o’ botany bay 

following ; they were all there, and seemed 
to think if “ Coal Jean ” was welcome, all 
were welcome ! 

In that motley assembly there were 
some noted characters, a kind of aristoc- 
racy of oddities of the district. Among 
the women were “ Pirn Nannie,” “ Specky 
Mause,” “ Wheezy Meg,” the washer- 
woman, “Tousey Nell,” “Muckee Kirs- 
ty,” “ Margery Gemmell,” u Susie Demp- 
ster,” “ Big Mary,” the twister, “Isobel,” 
the tainbourer, and the milk lass from the 
dairy across the road. Among the men 
there was “Tam MacOuat,” “ Brimstane 
Jamie,” “ Royal Charlie,” “ Sandy Bell,” 
and “ Hughie Dunlap,” the tailor, and a 
host of other well-known of the Bay. It 
must be understood that the above were 
their nick-names, according to their oc- 
cupation or natural characteristics — a 
custom peculiar to Scotch people of the 
humbler class. 

Of course there were, as might have 
been expected, two or three uppish, fas- 
tidious, crotchety people who saw in this 
kind of thing the downfall of all decent, 
clean religion, and the breaking up of a re- 


A WONDERFUL, EVENING 103 

spectable, prosperous congregation. They 
were like the priest and the Levite, on the 
other side of the road, and thought the 
kirk was not for a lot of dirty paupers. 
It was a paying concern, and there was 
no business in bringing in a burdensome 
lot of poor, useless people. 

They were stout contenders for a re- 
ligion of culture and lofty, intelligent 
piety, and were also the warm friends of 
missions to the far-away heathen, yet 
stone-blind to the heathenism of Botany 
Bay, which was always well in sight and 
within touch. 

It has been well remarked : “ It is more 
possible to love and sympathize with our 
fellow-men than our capricious nature 
would have us believe. We are in the 
habit of drawing too many arbitrary lines 
of demarcation indicating the boundaries 
of our love to men. Some fall within, 
others as surely fall without these lines. 
This person does not come up to our 
standards socially, another does not share 
our individual beliefs, so we draw a line 
mentally, which leaves such outside the 
line of our love, and we tacitly relieve 


104 THE o’erturn o’ botany bay 

ourselves of any obligation to them which 
love would impose. For any reason or 
for no reason, simply because ‘ we do not 
like them,’ or from unspoken inward 
contempt and pride, we draw the zigzag 
isothermal line that shuts people away 
from our sympathies and affections.” 

The Botany Bay effort was getting 
down to rock bottom, gospel simplicity 
and helpfulness. On this eventful occa- 
sion, minister and deacons graced the 
platform, also Adam the precentor, who 
had the singing well in hand, and there 
was “ nane o’ your wheezy, squeaky kist 
o’ whistles to lead it.” The minister had 
all the weightiness of bulk, a fine, kindly 
face, a big heart, and a silver tongue. 
But better than all, he had a good, broad 
grip of the gospel. 

It was always a feast of fat things to 
listen to him. He was a Welshman and 
had been a missionary in Jamaica for 
some years, and so was not unacquainted 
with black faces or poorly clad folk. But 
the face or its conditions does not always 
indicate the man. We look at the out- 
ward, God at the inward, and he is the 


A WONDERFUL, EVENING 105 

keener sighted and never makes mis- 
takes. 

The pastor presided, but the manage- 
ment of the service was in the hands of 
the young people as before outlined. 
The prayers were brief, sensible, and 
earnest, so also were the addresses, and 
the singing was appropriate and hearty. 
There never was such a prayer meeting 
before in that part of the city in the his- 
tory of religion. The workers were 
mixed up with the audience. No one 
was called upon by name to take part in 
the proceedings, all was left open, and 
there were no long pauses, or breaks, as 
all were ready to aid as opportunity of- 
fered. The hearts of all were running 
over with desire and expectancy of a 
large blessing in Jesus’ name. 

A short address was given, and then 
several prayers, offered in all parts of the 
audience room, five or six taking part in 
turn. God was wrestled with in behalf 
of Botany’s people. He was reminded 
of his promises, and of what he had done 
for themselves for Jesus’ sake : “We oor- 
sels hae been helpless, hapless, hopeless 


io6 the o’erturn o’ botany bay 

sinners on the very pit-month of perdi- 
tion, and about tae slip in and be lost 
forever. Bnt thou hast been pleased to 
save us, and it was all of free, sovereign 
grace, and not for anything in us, or that 
we hae dune. Oh, we ask thee in Jesus’ 
name tae dae for the Botany folk what it 
has pleased thee tae dae for us, by the 
powerful working o’ the Holy Ghost in 
their hearts and consciences. O Lord, 
dae it for Jesus’ sake, or they will be for- 
ever lost. Lord, save them, save now, 
for Jesus’ sake. Amen.” 

In the foregoing we gain but a faint 
idea of the prayers offered and the spirit 
of the meeting. Jack says : “There was 
adoration, confession of sin, thanks for 
all mercies, a pleading of the promises, 
and earnest intercession in behalf of the 
Botany folk who had braved all and come 
out to hear the gospel of the grace of 
God.” 

There was in the congregation a tin- 
smith, Andrew MacNair, who had re- 
cently returned from America full of the 
revival spirit, and well versed in Amer- 
ican methods of work. There was also 


A WONDERFUL EVENING 107 

a one-eyed old Englishman, a Methodist 
and an iron-puddler, who had come all 
the way from Dixon’s furnaces to get re- 
ligiously warmed up, as he said, for since 
his arrival north he had just been frozen 
spiritually. He had heard of the meet- 
ings and had to come to help, if need be. 

These two were a host in themselves 
in the realm of the emotional. 

The Scotch-Yankee tinner and the old 
English puddler could not and would not 
keep quiet.- MacNair got out of his pew 
into the aisle and went backward and 
forward clapping his hands and offering 
short ejaculatory prayers, and old Silas 
Whitman helped him on with his warm, 
hearty responses and groans, and in a 
little while there was a roaring fire of 
religious excitement. In the opinion of 
some it was Pentecost over again, in that 
of others it was a crazy outbreak of re- 
ligious feeling. Over the audience room 
one and another was entreating God for 
mercy. Hearts had softened, the flood- 
gates of the soul were open, and there 
was sore sobbing and confession of sin. 
The place was a Bochim. 


108 THE O’ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

Some were completely terrified out of 
their wits, and did not take time to open 
the pew doors to get out, but just leaped 
over into the aisle and out of the place, 
as if running a steeple chase. 

Among those who ran out was Jamie 
Fleming, a poor useless body, a baker, 
given to drink, who more than once had 
had delirium tremens. He had been in 
attendance to gratify his poor old mother. 
He got out of the place like a streak of 
lightning, and as if all the powers of evil 
were in chase to get him. 

Jack Foster said when spoken to : 
“I was not prepared for this, neither 
was my fellow-worker, but if it is the 
Ford’s doing we are satisfied. Time will 
show whether it is of the Ford or of man.” 

The poor deacons did not do anything 
but sit and swing to and fro in their seats 
and wring their hands and weep like 
bairns. Old Daddy McOuat, a dairyman, 
a big, handsome man, who always wore 
a broad-brimmed hat, as it became him, 
sat there with a look of wonderment 
upon his face and the big salt tears 
making haste down his chubby face. 


A WONDERFUE EVENING 109 


The pastor was the happiest man of 
all. It was to him an old-time revival. 
He was in his element and had a busy 
time dealing with the convicted and 
anxious ones. The deacons were para- 
lyzed and aghast at the answer to their 
own prayers, as the manner of it was un- 
expected. It did not come in a soberly 
discreet way. They had been praying 
for Holy Ghost power, and that God by 
his Spirit through the word would do 
his own work in the hearts of the Botany 
folk, but he was not doing it their 
way, and they could not believe their 
eyes, now that the people had wakened 
up to see their need of the Saviour and 
to seek salvation on God’s terms alone. 

It was not discreet, there was no de- 
corum, a sad lack of reverence and deep 
solemnity. They had not been brought 
up that way, and therefore it could not 
be right. As if sinners, gross sinners, 
suddenly and deeply alarmed about their 
present and eternal interests could be 
discreet, decorous, and solemnized ! The 
reply was : “ When a hoose taks fire, and 
is burning itsel doon, and valuable prop- 


IIO THE O’ERTURN o’ BOTANY BAY 

erty and precious life are at stake, 
where does discretion, decorum, and deep 
solemnity come in? Why, it is the spirit 
o’ humanity and gude sense that comes 
in, and every ain does what his better 
judgment prompts him to do, and he 
does it wi’ a’ his might and right heart- 
ily too. It is : ‘ Kum awa’, freens, and 
lend us a hand tae help these puir buddies 
tae save their bits o’ things ! ’ ” 

These poor people had all of a sudden 
found themselves in a house of prayer, 
and saw themselves to be guilty, lost, and 
undone sinners, on the very brink of 
ruin, and were they to be discreet, and 
to hide their feelings, and go softly and 
quietly about seeking salvation ? 

Several had stood up of their own ac- 
cord to make request for the prayers of 
God’s people, and among the most anx- 
ious was “ Coal Jean.” 

Her face was a picture. Her eyes were 
red with weeping, and her face had all the 
streaks of the zebra as the tears trickled 
down her coal-begrimed cheeks. But 
“ Jean ” was in earnest about her salva- 
tion and on her part it was real heart 


A WONDERFUL EVENING 


III 


work. Then came the after-meeting for 
inquirers, at which the Bible was freely 
used to aid them in seeking God’s way 
of peace, pardon, and holiness. 

Some heard more Scripture that eve- 
ning than they had heard for many years, 
and this was true of those who had bet- 
ter opportunities than the Botany folk. 
That evening fourteen or more precious 
ones professed to yield themselves to 
Christ to be saved by him alone, and the 
meeting did not break up till midnight, 
as the people would not go home, so 
anxious were they to have the matter of 
their eternal salvation settled once for 
all. They would see Jesus as their own 
Saviour. Among those who came to a 
decision that night were several young 
men who became active Christians ; two 
of them studied for the ministry and be- 
came successful pastors. 

The special meetings lasted all through 
the fall, and far into the winter. Sixty 
at least made a profession of their faith 
in Christ by baptism ; dozens of others 
who did not belong to the Bay did the 
same ; and it proved to be a season of 


1 12 THE O’ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

refreshing from the presence of the 
Lord. 

Those who had been made the sub- 
jects of grace through the word preached 
unto them, soon changed the character 
of Botany Bay. It was no longer Botany 
Bay, but Kirkwood Place, and the house 
factor was a proud man. Property rose 
in value, rent and taxes could be col- 
lected, and there was but little demand 
for police service. The sergeant of po- 
lice was wonderfully well pleased with 
the altered behavior of its people, as his 
men were relieved of a lot of unpleasant 
duty, especially on Saturday night and 
early Sunday. Botany Bay, in a word, 
was “ turned upside down ” and right 
side up, and it was to remain so, as we 
shall see later on. 

It was a most signal triumph of divine 
grace, and a standing evidence that the 
gospel is still the power of God, and that 
the grace of God in the heart of any peo- 
ple is a great moral force, and can do 
more for society at large than the best- 
managed system of police. The shebeens 
shut down, for there was no use for them. 


A wonderful evening 1 13 

Things generally began to look better, 
and the homes, more comfortable, bore 
the look of tidiness and thrift. Woman’s 
life was easier and brighter, and young 
life was more joyful. 



/ 


H 


CHAPTER IX 


THE MISSION HOUSE 

Grace ! ’ tis a charming sound, 

Harmonious to the ear ; 

Heaven with the echo shall resound, 

And all the earth shall hear. 

HE spirit which led Philip Doddridge 



I to compose those lines led the ma- 
trons Macmillan, Dempster, and Gem- 
mill, to wait upon the house factor to 
see whether he would not grant them the 
use of an empty house in the Macmillan 
tenement, which for a time had stood 
tenantless. 

They requested it rent free, for mission 
purposes, and assured him, “ It will be 
the very making o’ the place. See what 
the grace o’ God has dune for the place 
already. A house o’ prayer in the dis- 
trict would be a beacon licht in the dark- 
ness and danger o’ the place, and a credit 
tae us a’.” Mr. Kirkwood was a keen 


The mission house 115 

business man and managed his affairs to 
the satisfaction of his numerous clients, 
and with business foresight, as well as 
Christian sympathy, he granted the free 
use of the tenantless house as a house of 
worship. 

Once in possession, the women set 
themselves to clean up the place. They 
also provided lamps, benches, and, the 
strangest thing of all, an old pulpit, which 
was bought from a second-hand dealer. 
As described to us : “ It was an auld bar- 
rel kine o’ thing aboot four feet in di- 
ameter, and had a door by which the 
preacher entered and could snibb him- 
sel’ in, and live and move in a worl’ o’ 
his ain. It had been in its day a grand 
affair wi’ its book-board covered wi’ crim- 
son velvet, and adorned wi’ thick silk 
cord and tassels ; and a lang heavy silk 
freenge. It had, of course, seen better 
days and had accommodated many great 
men.” The women desired the place to 
look as much like a kirk as it could. It 
was all done without the knowledge of 
the two lads who had been made respon- 
sible for the mission, and it was a com- 


Il6 THE OVERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

plete surprise to them, and it was meant 
to be so. 

“ We were,” says Jack, “ ignorant o’ 
their ongoings, until they waited on us 
wi’ the request that we would take charge 
o’ the mission and gie them a Sabbath 
afternoon and Thursday night service. 

“ Dumfoundered does not by any man- 
ner o’ means express the state o’ mind 
awakened by such a request, and such a 
revelation. We had not the heart to re- 
fuse, though our labors then were more 
than enough for the strength and time 
we had at our disposal, as we were now 
seeking to improve our gifts, if we had 
any, by attending evening school. We 
went over at the request of the ladies to 
inspect the house and the furniture, and 
the whole was a credit to them, they were 
assured. ‘ But that pulpit,’ said Silas. 

‘ is more than enough to make one stand 
on his head wi’ astonishment. Such an 
idea ! a real pulpit, such a big bit o’ fur- 
niture, in a room about eighteen feet 
square ! ’ We did not like it, but there 
it was, an expression of the women’s 
sense o’ fitness, and of gratitude also. 


the: mission house 


II 7 

“ Others appreciated the mission pul- 
pit and made use of it, but I could not 
do other than regard it as a thing alto- 
gether out of place and the height o’ 
nonsense. It always made me feel as if 
I were at an immense distance from the 
poor buddies who sat in front of me, and 
could have been touched with my hand 
by reaching over the book-board. Still 
I refrained from giving offense, but when 
I warmed up and had a good grip of my 
subject, I just got out softly from the old 
thing, and stood between it and the old 
people, felt more at home, and had greater 
power.” 

It was deemed advisable to get as many 
as possible to share in the work of the 
mission, so as to give variety in the serv- 
ice, as well as to enlist fresh talent to 
forward Christ’s cause. Such an ar- 
rangement would leave the young men 
free, as used of God, to take away the 
stones and break up the fallow ground 
yet to be cultivated. 

Jack, owing to his occupation, had to 
be up out of bed at an early hour of the 
day, and was not released from severe 


Il8 THE O’ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

labor until a somewhat late hour of the 
evening. The protracted meetings, cou- 
pled with his own severe labor during the 
day, began to tell much on his strength, 
and it soon became apparent to many 
that he was on the eve of breaking down. 

The Scotch-Yankee tinner, the one- 
eyed English puddler, and two of the 
younger deacons, were enlisted for mis- 
sion service, and with the exception of 
old Elias Whitman, each of them agreed 
to give an address in turn ; he consented 
only to take part in the devotional serv- 
ice. He was a power in prayer, language, 
and unction. Jack said : 

“ I stuck to the old man like a brother ; 
his nationality and Methodism did not 
bother me in the least. He had a warm, 
loving, Christian heart, and was deeply 
interested in all that ought to interest a 
Christian who saw the world’s need of a 
living Christ. That was enough for me.” 

It was a very easy and pleasant task 
to address this audience, inasmuch as 
those who composed it were not over- 
critical, and were always appreciative of 
what the laddies said. Bad grammar, 


THE MISSION HOUSE 


H 9 

mispronunciation, and mistakes in the 
quotations from Scripture, never bothered 
those poor bodies ; to them it was all 
wonderful ! What the Botany folk were 
after was the sense of Scripture, God’s 
mind in doctrine, precept, and promise. 
They desired the sappy, luscious fruit of 
God’s word, and not the dry, tasteless 
leaves, no matter how prettily they might 
be set out, or might look as to form and 
color. They desired the bones of a sub- 
ject, the very marrow of the gospel, and 
they expected God, the Holy Spirit, to 
give them all this through his young serv- 
ants and their elderly helpers. They had 
a spiritual hunger, and it is said, “a hun- 
gry man is not over-nice as to what is 
set before him, as long as it is clean and 
eatable. Hunger needs no condiment.” 

But between ourselves, it was some- 
times a sore battle to keep one’s face 
straight in meeting — especially when led 
by the Scotcli-Yankee. When it had 
come to MacNair’s turn, he read to them 
from the Acts of the Apostles about 
Paul’s voyage through the Mediterranean 
Sea. It was a sea with treacherous tides 


120 THE O’ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

and full of rocks to him, poor man, but 
he did not know and could not see them. 
In naming the different places or points 
touched by the ship, it was simply terri- 
fic the way he pronounced them. Clauda 
was the Clyde, and other words in the 
same ratio of correctness, but he was 
oblivious to his mistakes, and sailed 
away, tacking here and there beautifully 
until he made harbor. He was far from 
being self-conscious or super-sensitive, 
and did not know when he was laughed 
at. He could not see it and therefore 
did not feel it. But MacNair in his 
own way was a fine character and a 
liberal giver to the Lord’s cause. He 
walked all the way from Parti ck to aid 
in the mission. 

In the course of the winter, of their 
own accord, the people got up a tea- 
meeting, or soiree , the term in more 
general use. It was by the mission folk 
for the mission folk ; there was no ad- 
mission fee. It was not a scheme to 
make money ; of such a thing they never 
dreamed. They had no idea of meeting 
together to eat themselves rich or out of 


THE MISSION HOUSE 


1 21 


debt or to meet a deficit. It was got up 
in the name of good-fellowship, and out 
of gratitude to their spiritual benefactors. 
They were after the intellectual and 
spiritual. The tea, pies, and cookies, 
were poor tasteless things put alongside 
of the feast of reason and flow of soul. 
Those who know Scotland and her church 
customs will readily acknowledge that 
the churches do not go into the cookie 
and tea-kettle business to pay the minis- 
ter’s back salary or to reduce a church 
debt. The people have too much good 
sense, as a rule, to be carried away by 
any such nonsense. 

The report supplied us is as follows : 
“ The tea meeting was a very homely af- 
fair ; there were no set tables; the tea 
and eatables were just handed round from 
seat to seat. The tea dishes were of all 
kinds and sizes, big and little, of differ- 
ent ages and complexions, and of many 
patterns. In some instances a small bowl 
was substituted for the ordinary sized 
teacup. It was a general mix-up of delft 
and china, and the spoons — we will not 
mention them, further than that they 


122 THE O’ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

were odd ones, very ancient and well 
worn. But poor buddies, in the goodness 
o’ their hearts they had done their best, 
and had got out their good men to the 
feast. It was remarked that the gospel 
had put spirit and taste into the women 
folk. Their coiffure — I think that is 
what it is called ; it is the way a woman 
has of doing up her head or head-gear to 
make herself look dazzling and attractive, 
captivating, to lead the gude-man to fall 
anew in love. 

“Their manner of dressing was all 
that could be wished for in a people in 
their humble circumstances. Those who 
had not white linen mutches, or caps 
newly done up, had black lace ones, 
decked with ribbons, glass beads, and 
artificial flowers. They thought them- 
selves nothing small. One could see it 
in the cast of the eye and the carrying of 
the head, and the peculiar expression of 
the face, when a woman is just real well 
pleased with herself. Such an evening 
in Botany was a foretaste of heaven and 
the death-knell to whisky and impurity.” 

Every work of grace has its attendant 


THE MISSION HOUSE 1 23 

evils, and the work of grace in Botany 
Bay was no exception. Some of those 
whom the grace of God had lifted out of 
the pit-hole of sin got carried away, first 
with spiritual pride, and then with worldly 
vanity, and Botany Bay could not hold 
them. Jack said : u They are just like 
the wee laddie who stuck i’ the lum 
(chimney) ; they are too big for their 
place.” They must get out of it and 
into more respectable quarters, but the 
same size of house in a better neighbor- 
hood meant a bigger rent and more ex- 
pensive plenishing, and that again meant 
getting into debt, and it has been said, 
when debt gets in at the door, love gen- 
erally gets out at the window. 

There is nothing sinful in contracting 
debt, if one can see any reasonable pros- 
pect of meeting it when it is due, but to 
go into it hap-hazard, purchasing what 
one really does not actually need, and 
then to trust the Lord somehow to get 
you out of it, is the very height of pre- 
sumption and greatly grieves the Holy 
Spirit of God. The head of a family we 
will not name, got so high-minded and so 


124 THE O’ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

full of earthly vanity, that when spoken 
to about her absence from public wor- 
ship she made reply : “ Though I am no 
wi’ you bodily, I am wi’ you in speerit,” 
and the answer given her was : “ Sister 

G , it would be well for you tae bring 

your body wi’ you, when you come 
again in the speerit ; if you do that we 
shall be able to say that our sister, Mrs. 

G is out to-day and we are glad of 

it. Your brethren are not so far advanced 
in spirituality as to be able to discern 
such spirits, when they come to church 
service out of the body.” 

Mrs. G was hopelessly involved in 

debt, and that may have been the cause 
of her spiritual attendance upon the ordi- 
nances, as, when there in the body, she 
had to look her creditors in the face. 

Those who give credit are often worse 
or more to blame than those who receive 
it. On the part of both there is blame. 
There is often a sad lack of gumption, or 
good sense. Men should not be so anx- 
ious to force their wares upon others. 
A man who sells on credit ought to look 
all around him and ahead of him as to his 


THE MISSION HOUSE 


I2 5 

customers, their present circumstances 
and general reputation. They do not do 
this, but force their wares upon unwill- 
ing buyers, and afterward boast of their 
large sales, rush of business, and pros- 
pective fortunes. But it is all a cruel 
delusion and a snare, and the occasion of 
mischief and misery in families. 

Mrs. G was over head and ears in 

debt for dress, house plenishing, etc. She 
was one of those who were too big for 
Botany Bay, and she was now dunned to 
death by her creditors. She saw she had 
made a bad blunder in allowing herself 
to be carried away with the pride of life. 
She had ventured on unsafe ground and 
was now more than shoe deep in the 
mire, and only God himself could get 
her out by a sad and bitter experience. 

The lady who had given her her fine 
dresses was a member of the same church, 
and this scandal was finally made a means 
of grace. 

Deacon William B was an excel- 

lent man, intelligent, conscientious, spirit- 
ual, upright to a high degree, and ever 
anxious to conserve the church’s good 


126 THE OVERTURN O* BOTANY BAY 

name, and so he brought the case of Mrs. 

G before the deacons as one calling 

for attention. 

The man from whom Mrs. G got 

her house plenishing had little practical 
piety, and was rather fond of a dram. 
When he called to collect the debt, it 
was always acknowledged, but no at- 
tempt was made to pay it. Mrs. G 

was busy reading the Bible, and when 

poor Mac would straighten himself 

up to address her in the most direct way 
possible, she was sure to have the first 
word, and to put a series of questions to 
him about the state of his soul and his 
manner of life. She could not pay him, 
but the Lord would reward him for what 

he had done. Mac could not stand 

it and so would flee the place without 
achieving anything. Later he had to 
speak out like a man, and told her 
straight : “ The good Lord will not pay 
the deil’s (devil’s) debts.” He lodged a 
complaint with the deacons. Church 
discipline is not a very pleasant thing, 
any more than a “ black draught ” (salts 
and senna), but in the body spiritual as 


THE MISSION HOUSE 127 

well as the body physical medicine at 
times is a necessity. 

In the congregational system, discipline 
has to be managed with great wisdom, 
tenderness, and Christian firmness, for 
in the removal of the offending member, 
there is the risk of rending the body to 
pieces. The Apostle Paul saw this clearly, 
and therefore counseled : “ If any man 
be overtaken in a fault, ye which are 
spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit 
of meekness, considering thyself lest thou 
also be tempted. Let him that thinketh 
he standeth take heed lest he fall.” It 
is passing strange that those who stand 
in slippery places themselves are always 
the most anxious to urge procedure, and 
to propose extreme steps. After a sea- 
son of grave anxiety and much prayer, 

Mrs. G was excluded, but not to be 

treated as a heathen woman, or worthless 
person. 

In time the Lord brought her back 
again to do her first works, but it was on 
a sick-bed and on the very verge of the 
grave. 

The Lord Jesus looked upon Peter, 


128 THE o’ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

and yet Peter had cruelly deserted him, 
denying that he knew him with oaths 
and with curses. He was very profane, 
yet the Lord did not give him up ; 
“Jesus looked upon Peter.” 


CHAPTER X 


THE “ DISCIPEE CEASS ” 

Oh, that I could forever sit, 

With Mary at the Saviour’s feet ; 

Be this my happy choice ; 

My only care, delight, and bliss, 

My joy, my heaven on earth be this, 
To hear the Bridegroom’s voice. 


— Wesley. 



HE number of meetings, Sundays and 


week-day, soon proved too much for 
Jack Foster’s strength. He caught a 
cold, had congestion of the lungs, it was 
said, and had a sore time of it, and whilst 
sick abed many of those poor people 
called to inquire for him, leaving with 
Grannie Rodger, oranges, apples, and 
grapes, and other nice things, as an ex- 
pression of their interest and gratitude. 

God was gracious ; his sickness was not 
a very prolonged one and so it did not 
make much of a break in the work, as new 
blood had been enlisted in the service. 


i 


129 


130 THE O’ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

Young men of a more liberal education 
were now doing their part to hold Botany 
Bay for Christ, and were intent on serv- 
ing him in any capacity. Hopefully con- 
verted to God themselves they laid them- 
selves on his altar for service, and were 
at work in the school as well as the Bay. 
The school had now grown so large as 
to demand the use of the main audience 
room and the two adjoining halls. The 
last Sunday of each month witnessed 
numerous baptisms on a profession of 
faith in Christ. All the sittings in church 
were rented, yet though pew rents pre- 
vailed, every one was ready to give up 
his sitting to a stranger. No stranger 
ever entered and left unnoticed or with- 
out a kind word having been spoken to 
him ; kind inquiries were made as to 
their church connection and their state of 
spirituality, and an invitation was ex- 
tended to come again and to come often. 

Jack’s sickness left him out of a situa- 
tion, as the nature of his employment 
made it difficult to keep his place open ; 
besides, his manner of life did not meet 
with the approbation of the foreman, who 


THE DISCIPEE CLASS 


131 

was a careless man and given to worldly 
pleasure. He did all possible to turn 
the heart of Jack’s employer against him, 
lest by his intelligence and probity Jack 
might supplant him. 

It was a test of Jack’s faith in God ; 
out of a situation and with nothing laid 
up against a rainy day, except a Father’s 
care. He could not remain idle, but did 
all the more to forward God’s cause and 
God took care of him. He said, “ I 
never had to boast of abundance of this 
world’s good, yet I never had to com- 
plain of actual want, or had to beg or 
borrow. Help came when needed, and 
often from unexpected quarters, and from 
where I knew not, but God knew and to 
him I was grateful. My only indebted- 
ness was to love, and I have always 
sought to live so. 

“I read the New Testament, somehow, 
with eyes different from others. It was 
a matter-of-fact book to me. Salvation, 
in my way of looking at it, is spiritual 
life through turning to God in Christ, 
and what God by his Spirit through the 
word has inwrought in the man will ex- 


132 THE O’ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

press itself in a degree in the mail’s dis- 
position, conduct, and endeavor. The 
man who is in Christ, or has Christ in 
him, is a new creation ; old things have 
passed away, ‘ behold all things are be- 
come new.’ The body, as well as the 
soul, is redeemed by the blood of Christ. 
The body is his as the Spirit’s dwelling- 
place, and is to be reserved for his use in 
reconciling others to him. 

“ The grace of God is all-sufficient in 
our battle with self and in its conquest for 
Christ. The body, as the guest chamber 
of the Holy Ghost, is to be kept pure and 
sweet, and the appetites and the passions 
are not to master us, but we are to be by 
the grace of God their masters. One in 
some measure must have conquered him- 
self before he can spiritually overcome 
others. A man may control appetite and 
be the slave of his passions, an unclean 
and an avaricious man. A man cannot 
be an out and out Christian who does 
not surrender his will, appetites, desires, 
and passions to Christ as Lord and Re- 
deemer.” 

Jack’s teaching was too advanced for 


THE DISCIPLE CLASS 1 33 

many of his elder, and also for some of 
his younger, brethren. They could not 
see things in his light, and he was cred- 
ited with preaching an impracticable 
gospel and a gospel out of all reason ; but 
he remained of the opinion that it was a 
gospel of common sense, and that the 
New Testament is a common-sense book. 
“The gospel of the grace of God,” is 
a civilizing, enlightening, and saving 
power. The gospel of Jesus in its grand 
life-principles of love and self-sacrifice 
proclaims the highest idea and employs 
the only adequate motive for true cul- 
ture. When the angels sang their glorias 
on the plain of Bethlehem, they sang 
the broadest, grandest benediction that 
ever blessed the world. They sang not 
that they might live in careless ease, re- 
ceiving all and giving nothing, but that 
the spirit of Him whom they heralded 
might so rule in us as to quicken us to 
devotion and service, and thus hasten the 
“reign of peace on earth.” 

Jack Foster never could be an Anti- 
nomian. The practical workings of the 
grace of God in Grannie Foster, as wit- 


134 THE O’ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

nessed by him, would forever prevent it, 
if nothing else did. He held that the 
whole New Testament was against such 
a selfish, unserviceable life, amid a world 
of helpless, suffering, dying men. “ Know 
ye not that the kingdom of heaven is 
within you ? The kingdom of heaven is 
righteousness and peace and joy in the 
Holy Ghost.” His contention was that 
these and other passages sustained him 
in his position that the life of the be- 
liever in Christ Jesus is one of personal 
holiness, and that he seeks holiness, not 
that he may be saved, but because he has 
been saved by grace through faith. 

One of the latest accessions to the 
diaconate about this time gave to him a 
very valuable book, Bellamy’s “True 
Religion Delineated,” which he after- 
ward found to be most helpful to him in 
his teaching and preaching, and he has 
said more than once : “ I would earnestly 
commend the book to every Christian as 
one of the best spiritual helps we have in 
the English language, aside from the New 
Testament itself.” 

Bellamy was a son-in-law of the great 


THE DISCIPLE CLASS 


I 35 


Jonathan Edwards, a leader in the great 
evangelical movement in New England 
in the eighteenth century. Bellamy’s 
book was written after the great reli- 
gions awakening, to correct mistaken 
religious views held by many of the pro- 
fessed converts, and to encourage intelli- 
gent godly living. 

The thought of having a “ Disciple 
Class ” was suggested by the reading of 
a little work prepared by the late Charles 
Stovel, pastor of the Baptist church, Com- 
mercial Road, London, entitled, “ The 
Christian Disciple Class.” It is an ex- 
cellent treatise and gives in succinct form 
the theology and ethics of the New Tes- 
tament, the relation of the saved sin- 
ner to God, the church, the family, so- 
ciety, and the world at large. 

“ The Christian Disciple Class ” met 
on Sunday at mid-day in the house of 

John N , the beadle. It numbered 

about twenty young men and women and 
was conducted in a quiet, unostentatious 
manner, and its main object was the study 
of the Holy Scriptures as related to the 
personal and relative duties of the Chris- 


136 THE O’ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

tian life. The class in two seasons went 
over the whole ground indicated in Mr. 
Stovel’s excellent compendium. The 
class had a glimpse of the being and 
character of God, the Trinity, the fall of 
man, the atonement, the work of the 
Holy Spirit, the nature of faith, the ne- 
cessity of repentance, the nature and ori- 
gin of the church, the obligatory nature 
of the ordinances of baptism and the 
Lord’s Supper, the believer’s relation to 
God in Christ, his relation to his own 
family, the relation of labor and capital, 
the relation of the Christian to society, 
to the civil government, and, in fact, to 
all that concerns a human life this side 
the grave. 

The occasion of Jack’s taking up the 
class was an unhappy feud and an un- 
holy rupture between the young men of 
the Evangelistic Association and the pas- 
tor of the church. Some of its members 
had become “wise in their own conceits,” 
and so they suggested a new regime in 
local evangelization. The pastor was to 
remain in the background while they 
advanced to the front. Thus sprang up 


THE DISCIPLE CLASS 1 37 

the “ root of bitterness ” that was to give 
trouble. It was proposed that the young 
men should preside at the meetings and 
the pastor remain in the vestry to deal 
with anxious inquirers. It was never 
thought for a moment to belittle his 
office or to usurp it, but only that absence 
would give greater freedom to those who 
took part in the service. The pastor’s 
presence was supposed to put a damper 
upon the meeting. 

That the proposal would give offense 
might easily have been seen, unless judi- 
ciously presented. Offense it did give, 
when the deputation unveiled their plan 
of work. It stirred the pastor’s Welsh fire, 
and it blazed out upon the deputies, who 
did not return as Caleb did after spying 
out the land, but with downcast, sour 
countenances. In a word, they were in 
the dumps, and characteristically of the 
race they declared he might “ noo hae 
the hale thing tae himself, as we are 
dune wi’ it.” 

u It was a sorry bit of business,” says 
Jack. “ I tried hard to make peace, and 
called a meeting for Sabbath morning at 


138 THE O’ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

ten o’clock to bring about a reconcilia- 
tion. We had much prayer and suitable 
Scripture reading, and then as leader 
of the meeting I led off, explaining the 
nature of the business we had to transact. 

u I sought to show how and where 
our mistake had been made, and how a 
reconciliation might be effected, if we 
would set about it in the right spirit, as 
it was desirable that the good work should 
now go forward. We were the younger 
and less experienced, and ought to give 
way to the pastor and esteem him highly 
in love for his work’s sake, even though 
it might be he had erred in his treat- 
ment of our deputies. 

“ In a quarrel there are generally two 
parties, and if we would settle it amica- 
bly we must give and take. If we could 
not get the first best, let us take the 
second in the interests of Christ’s cause. 

“ The pastor was called in, and on 
behalf of the young men I made a state- 
ment explaining our past and present 
attitude to him, as one of esteem and 
love, and as one of readiness to co-operate 
with him in every good word and work. 


THE DISCIPLE CLASS 1 39 

I expressed regret at what had taken 
place and the desire that what had hap- 
pened through an unhappy misunder- 
standing might be buried and forgotten 
and Christ glorified. 

“The pastor to a number of us seemed 
to take things coolly, though in reality 
he did not ; he only sought to improve 
the opportunity by giving a little whole- 
some advice, which only tended to ag- 
gravate the situation. 

“ When he retired there was a scene. 
I was charged with being in collusion 
with the pastor, and that it was all a put- 
up job between us. It was too evident 
that the breach had been widened. Satan 
had the inside track that morning. Like 
all others of the peacemaking kind, I 
came in for a tongue scorching from one 
of the would-be leaders who said to me in 
bloodcurdling tones : ‘ I tell you, my young 
man, I would rather have put that right 
hand into the fire and held it there until 
it was burnt clean off, than have made 
the humbling confession you have just 
made. I am done with you. You are 
nothing but a poor lick-spittle of a fel- 


140 THE OVERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

low, and you would allow him to double 
you up and dicht (wipe) the floor wi’ ye. 
You are only a Jesuit in disguise, and 
folk will find you out yet ! ’ 

“ From that day forward we could not 
walk together ; he was my sworn enemy. 
Such separation in Christian work was 
an iron in my soul, as I was not pre- 
pared for such stubborn, sour pride. I 
found it hard to reconcile with the teach- 
ings of our dear Ford. The situation 
nearly broke my heart. 

“ It has been said, ‘ The practical value 
of our opinions depends largely upon the 
estimate we place upon them. One man 
keeps his opinions with his pocket change, 
and they are continually changing ; an- 
other treasures every opinion he forms 
as the express image of his character, and 
clings to them as he clings to his char- 
acter. People who feel that their opin- 
ions are hardly worth holding, rarely 
find occasion to use them, while those 
who think that all men are born with the 
right to an opinion about everything have 
so many as to form an effectual barrier 
to their own intellectual progress. Per- 


THE DISCIPEE CEASS 


141 

haps the surest way to a just estimate of 
the value of one’s opinion is to begin 
with a very modest figure, and add to it 
as time shall show its qualities. Opinions 
are like horses in the fact that only ex- 
perience can reveal their real worth. 
Until we are sure of them we should 
hold them with both eyes open.’ 

“ I related the trouble through which 
I was passing to a venerable brother, and 
how sore I felt at heart. ‘ Jack,’ said he, 
‘ it is a part of your education, and just 
as needful as any you may receive at 
college. It is needful that you get a 
knowledge of men just as much as to get 
an acquaintance with books, and even 
the book itself. It is needful that we 
be taught that the whole work of grace 
is not done the moment a poor sinner 
turns to God through faith in his Son. 
It is true he is justified and forgiven 
through Christ’s infinite merit, and is in 
a sense sanctified through faith in him. 
He has the Holy Spirit as the seal of 
and witness to his faith in Christ. He 
has him right in the temple of his body 
and by the divine energy within him he 


142 THE O’ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

is to work out his own deliverance from 
the power of evil habits and passions and 
from association with vile persons. He 
is to grow in the grace and in the knowl- 
edge of our Lord Jesus Christ. “All we 
with open face beholding as in a mirror 
the glory of the Lord are changed into 
the same image from glory to glory, even 
as by the Spirit of the Lord.” “ There is 
first the blade, then the ear, then the full 
corn in the ear.” The Christian life is 
no “hop, step, and jump” into complete 
holiness and good sense. It is a growth, 
and the plant which the Lord has set out 
in his garden needs a lot of attention, 
frequent earth-stirring in the way of trials, 
afflictions, and sorrows, and it may be, 
to be well watered with strong crying 
and tears, as well as warmed and coaxed 
into life by close communion with God 
himself through faith in Christ. 

“ 1 Now look you here ; it must be 
understood that all who are saved by 
grace through faith are saved to serve. 
Salvation by grace does not make us 
masters, but bond-slaves. We do not run 
the business, but the Spirit of God in us 


THE DISCIPLE CLASS 


*43 


does it, and we have to take our place, 
and keep on serving God with reverence 
and godly fear. What God in great 
mercy has given us we are to hand on to 
the next man who has a like necessity. 

u 1 And further, my young friend, let 
me say to you, — and bear it continually in 
mind, — the local church is not a kind of 
social club, or mutual admiration society, 
whose members meet regularly to sit down 
together in loving converse, just like 
lovers, to coo and coo and coo like turtle 
doves. That kind of thing might be very 
pleasing to many, and a thing to be de- 
sired, but I assure you that there is neither 
time nor room for such gaffaw of silly 
nonsense. If man’s condition in the 
other world as a sinner saved by grace, 
is holy service, as the book teaches, it 
does not hide from us the truth that he 
is to serve him in the temple of his body 
here. The redeemed man has a ministry 
of reconciliation to fulfill and he serves 
best who suffers most for his Redeemer 
and Lord. The man saved by grace 
through faith is one of God’s great army, 
love-enlisted to put down all kinds of 


144 THE O’ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

rebellion in himself as well as in others. 
Every man is a kingdom in himself, 
and if he can rule himself well, he is in 
a fair way to govern others. 

“ ‘ u The weapons of our warfare are not 
carnal, but spiritual, and mighty through 
God,” “ For as many as are led by the 
Spirit of God are the Sons of God.” But 
we cannot at a single glance see all these 
things. The operations of grace endure 
through life.’ ” 

Jack would and could sit with delight 
at the feet of any old servant of Jesus, 
even at the feet of “ auld Elias Whitman, 
the one-eyed Methodist,” who though 
poorly educated was rich in faith toward 
God. It is said that, “ He who makes 
two blades of grass to grow where there 
was only one before, is a public bene- 
factor ; how much more is he who gives 
momentum to a movement which will 
train men and women and fit them to go 
out and live and work for God, and the 
good of their fellows.” 

There was now in the church a nucleus 
of earnest, devoted, and intelligent young 
people known as “ The Christian Disci- 


THE DISCIPLE CLASS 1 45 

pie Class,” and the time of their testing 
was at hand. 

Christ’s instructions touching offenses 
had been neglected by those who ought 
to have known better, and in the most 
serious way the church’s visible existence 
was threatened. But it would not be 
judicious to raise the curtain too high; 
suffice it to say, the spirit of partyism began 
to manifest itself in the church, revealing 
how far men might get away from the 
spirit of the Master, and be narrow, jeal- 
ous, and vindictive. 

The root of the whole trouble was the 
pastor’s resignation. Those who were 
least friendly and helpful before it had 
taken effect, were now his most attached 
friends and anxious to retain his services. 

The action or attitude of the senior 
deacon on some trifling family matter 
was regarded as the occasion of the pas- 
tor’s resignation, and the disaffected ones 
placed the burden of the sin of separation 
on the senior deacon. He was in the 
opinion of many about the only bit of 
sound timber in the entire rib-work of 
the ecclesiastical bark. 


K 


146 THE O’ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

For a series of years he had been the 
pastor’s most trusted friend, a liberal sup- 
porter, and a capable adviser. Of course 
he was not absolutely free from fault, 
yet he was more than an ordinary Chris- 
tian and filled the office of a deacon well. 

The separation of pastor and people 
had been effected. The pastor had ac- 
cepted of another charge, had made his 
arrangements to move, and then resigned, 
a public farewell had been given and a 
presentation made, and the thing could 
not be undone. 

The minister-deacon difference was 
dragged into the church meeting on the 
pastor’s retirement, and the dissatisfied 
ones demanded the expulsion of the sen- 
ior deacon before calling another pastor. 
Minister and deacon had never met to 
settle their difference, no third party had 
come in between them to arbitrate and 
settle the quarrel, if any, but the thing 
was thrown into the church-meeting at 
a time when there was no one able enough 
to steer the ship. 

Several meetings were held to bring 
about the deacon’s expulsion and the 


The disciple class 


147 


proceedings continued to an untimely 
hour of the night. When sensible peo- 
ple were tired out and had retired, the 
minority took a snap vote and expelled 
the deacon from office. 

They had the reins of government for 
a time, until means were taken to reverse 
the vote and re-instate the deacon. On 
his re-instatement by more than a two- 
thirds majority, the minority retired, the 
distracted body had peace, and spiritual 
prosperity returned. If pastor and dea- 
con had been men enough to meet to 
settle their differences as Christ instructed 
them, or if, having failed, they had set- 
tled it by arbitration, it would have pre- 
vented many unseemly scenes and an 
unholy strife. It is a great pity that 
where no Christian principle is at stake, 
any pastor should allow himself to be 
made the occasion of a division. 

The majority of our church quarrels 
are occasioned by the neglect of Christ’s 
own explicit law touching offenses, as 
laid down in Matthew eighteenth, and 
also in the fifth chapter. 

Jack Foster and the young people in- 


1 48 THE OVERTURN O* BOTANY BAY 

structed by him stuck to the church. If 
there was a wrong, and if it must be 
righted, it must first be proved, and then 
righted in Christ’s own way. The dea- 
con must be re-instated, dealt with scrip- 
turally, and if found at fault and recalci- 
trant, disciplined. There Jack stood until 
fully two-thirds of the people stood by 
him ; and it was the moral salvation of 
the cause. 

While the agitation lasted, it was the 
“ Christian Disciple Class ” on a big 
scale, with a sprinkling of unruly mem- 
bers. It was a painful, yet healthful ex- 
perience. 

“ One of the needs of the average man 
is an adequate idea of moral power. Few 
people stop long enough in the hurry of 
life to consider the fundamental truths 
of their relation to God and to their fel- 
low-man. Many are surprised when they 
are told that man is a moral being in a 
moral universe. They are further sur- 
prised to learn that it is impossible to 
conceive of moral government without 
the grant of rewards and the inflicting of 
penalties. Obligation, duty, or whatever 


THE DISCIPLE CLASS 


149 


you call it, is a constant factor. L,ife is 
a probation. The greater one’s conscious- 
ness of this fact, the larger is the possi- 
bility of one’s living a right life.” 

Jack became a student at the Univer- 
sity and Divinity Hall and could not 
give the class the attention it merited, 
and so in the third year of his college 
course he had to close his connection 
with it. The members of the class gave 
him as a parting gift three very useful 
books, Thomson’s “Hand and the Book,” 
Fleming’s “ Manual of Moral Philoso- 
phy ” and his “ Manual of Philosophical 
Terms,” and no better or more timely 
gift could have been made him. 

The following inscription is found in 
each of the three volumes given to him 
by the class : 

CHRISTIAN DISCIPLE CLASS. 

Presented to Mr. Jack Foster as a small 
token of the class’ gratitude for the tui- 
tion received, and for the earnest labors 
put forth for their advancement morally 
and spiritually, and as an Ebenezer of 
the many happy seasons spent by them 
as Bible students. 


150 THE O’ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

Praying that his own soul may be ever 
kept burning with love to the Saviour, 
and that his labors may be ever blessed 
to the winning of souls to Christ, and 
God in all glorified. 

May 15, 1863. 


CHAPTER XI 


JACK AT THE UNIVERSITY 

So study evermore is overshot : 

While it doth study to have what it would, 

It doth forget to do the thing it should ; 

And when it hath the thing it hunteth most, 
’Tis won, as towns with fire ; so won, so lost. 


—.Love’s Labor’ s Lost. 



HE university buildings were very 


± ancient, and went back to the times 
of “Zachary Boyd,” and the Middle Ages. 
The style was gothic and the walls free- 
stone, and many of the windows and 
doorways had curious stone carvings. 
There were four Courts, first the Divinity, 
second the Arts, the third, Law and Medi- 
cine, and the fourth the Hunterian Mu- 
seum, and beyond all the college green, 
or park, which covered many acres. 

In the fall of i860 there were about 
two thousand students in attendance on 
classes, and the “ humanity,” the most 
largely attended of all. On the north 


152 the o’erturn o’ botany bay 

side of the university squares, farther up 
High Street, there was a kind of private 
street where the professors resided, and 
it was the custom after paying a guinea 
for matriculation, to repair to the house 
of the professor whose classes one would 
enter, pay the class fee, and receive the 
class ticket for the session. The matric- 
ulation ticket entitled the student to the 
use of the library and the privilege of 
visiting the museum a certain number of 
times during the session. 

In Jack Foster’s time the professors 
were : Latin, William Ramsay and his 
nephew George; in Greek, Eushington, 
brother-in-law of the poet Tennyson ; 
logic and rhetoric, Robert Buchanan, 
the grand old man ; moral philosophy, 
Dr. James Fleming; mathematics, Black- 
wood ; natural philosophy, William 
Thomson, now knighted and made a 
lord ; English literature, Prof. Nichol. 

The students represented every relig- 
ious denomination in the country, and as 
there was no religious test, all stood on 
an equal footing in the arts classes. Of 
course the students connected with the 


JACK AT THE UNIVERSITY 1 53 

Established Church had special privileges 
in the hall of Divinity. It was a general 
denominational mix-up, and beneficial to 
the young men themselves, and an edu- 
cation in itself, giving mental breadth 
and a cosmopolitan feeling. 

The students were not only divided in 
religious thought and life but in political 
thought also. There were Tories, and 
Whigs, and Radicals. These ranged 
themselves into their respective camps, 
had their caucuses, platform meetings, 
and electoral organizations. In election 
times the Tories wore a blue cap, and the 
Liberals and Radicals a red one, and all 
of the parties had their stump orators. 

The writer remembers a student, after- 
ward one of Canada’s distinguished edu- 
cators, a leading mind, not only in church 
controversy but also in the discussion of 
our political affairs, taking part in a col- 
lege political struggle. He stood on the 
ancient stone stairway of Principal Bar- 
clay’s residence addressing a crowd of 
blue-caps with a very small mixture of 
red ones. Being a genuine blue-nose, he 
gave a regular Tupperian speech. The 


154 THE o’erturn o’ botany bay 

reds were armed with pea-shooters, which 
they used in the most effective way, and 
the embryo principal did his best to 
shield his face and parry the peas, and at 
the same time deliver his speech. Many 
men from the maritime provinces at- 
tended the university at that time. 

The election of a lord rector was an 
event, and an occasion of great excite- 
ment, developing a lot of latent oratorical 
power and cruel mischief, and generally 
leaving in its train torn garments, broken 
heads and black eyes, and things gener- 
ally in a very dilapidated condition. It 
is said that men are sadly divided in 
their religious opinions and show much 
narrowness and bigotry, but what about 
politics? It would seem as though the 
devil himself were the master of the sit- 
uation, and common decency and good 
sense nowhere ; but it is the practical 
politician who has the most to say against 
an earnest, simple piety and Christian 
individuality. 

While this political panjandrum lasted 
it hurled defiance at professors, the police, 
newspaper editors, and everybody else as 


JACK AT THE UNIVERSITY 1 55 

it took their fancy, because as students 
they believed it was their special privi- 
lege at such times to annoy and worry 
everybody in general and some people in 
particular, if of the opposite shade of 
politics. Without cause or reason and 
out of all reason, they would yell and 
howl, smash windows, and tear down 
sign-boards, and turn over a policeman. 

Sometimes they miscalculated both 
their strength and security, and a valiant 
contingent got seized and marched off to 
the lock-up, to appear before the bailie 
next morning, at an hour when they 
ought to have been at lectures, to have 
one out of the ordinary course, and a 
stiff examination fee to pay before liberty 
could be regained. 

Such students returned to their classes 
much subdued in spirit, somewhat en- 
lightened as to student license, and con- 
siderably impoverished in purse. The 
latter meant to many of them short ra- 
tions the remainder of the sessions, as 
but few of them could afford to contrib- 
ute to the maintenance of an efficient 
police system. 


156 THE O’ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

When the police succeeded in making 
such a haul, the student mind was rudely 
despoiled of the old superstition that the 
civil authorities had no jurisdiction 
within the college walls. 

The installation of Lord Palmerston 
as rector of the university was quite an 
event ; the reds, or Liberals and Radicals, 
had carried the election by a big majority, 
and there was great rejoicing on that ac- 
count. Lord Palmerston had come from 
London to give the electoral address, 
and as the hall of the university was too 
small to hold the audience, it was ar- 
ranged that it should be given in St. 
John’s Parish Church, and the magis- 
trates, the parish ministers, the faculty, 
the students, present and past, be formed 
into line of procession and proceed by 
way of High Street, Gallowgate, and Mac- 
Farlane Street to the church, the former 
scene of the ministry of the great Doctor 
Chalmers. The present Duke of Argyle, 
as one of the alumni, took his place 
among the youngsters and for the time 
being was young again, and did his best 
to work up enthusiasm for “ Old Pam.” 


JACK A? THE UNIVERSITY 1 57 

The old gentleman was safe-gnarded 
by the halbert bearers, the magistrates, 
the parish ministers, and the faculty, etc. 
He was robed in his rectorial gown, an old 
black rag handed down from the “Middle 
Ages,” which looked as if at any mo- 
ment it might, through extreme age and 
frailty, fall to pieces. In the open air, 
and also in the church edifice, the old 
gown was a great annoyance to him, as 
it was a noticeable misfit. He delivered 
a sensible, helpful, and eloquent address. 

It was a gay time and a training for 
the after-life political warfare. It had 
not much other value, as the whole work 
of a lord rector was to give the inau- 
gural address. Of course if legislation 
were required and the lord rector should 
be a member of the government, he could 
materially aid the university. 

Rectorial elections were managed after 
the old Roman style, and the electoral 
lists were made up according to nations. 

Of that crowd of hard-headed, brave- 
hearted, ambitious young men, only a 
very few went up for final examination, 
and the M. A. degree. Some who did go 


I5& THE overturn o* botany bay 

up and passed with honors went no fur- 
ther, as their finances stood in the way 
and shut them out from the possession of 
the coveted parchment. The great ma- 
jority of the students were the sons of 
poor, struggling, but respectable and God- 
fearing people. During the curriculum 
they had a hand-to-hand fight with grim 
poverty and all the discomforts incidental 
to it in the life of a great city. It is true 
there were bursaries or scholarships, but 
the competitors must bear a privileged 
name, or come from a certain district, 
and belong to a particular denomination 
of Christians. The bursaries were not 
open to all comers who had character 
and showed an aptitude for study. 

The order of things in the colleges of 
the New World is in advance of that in 
the Old, and the youth of that country 
have very much for which they should 
feel thankful. Higher education is with- 
in the reach of the poorest, and the hum- 
blest and most obscure may aspire to a 
university training and easily reach it. 

In some instances the theological course 
was concurrent with the arts course, but 


JACK AT THE UNIVERSITY 1 59 

the two together is too stiff an arrange- 
ment and one not to be desired. It would 
be better to take more time and do more 
thinking and less cram. The system 
of cram is a curse, and the “ pony ” a 
vile delusion and a snare, the wrecker of 
good minds and all manly principle. 
Better fight it out from ditch to ditch, 
and die bravely in the last trench, than 
be wholly dependent on a “ pony ” to 
ride to academic honors. 

Our hero had to drop his mission work, 
as in his case the two courses concurrent 
was unavoidable ; but things have since 
changed and a young man now has a 
chance to do honest, thoughtful, helpful 
study in all departments of a college 
course. Jack’s five sessions at the uni- 
versity and the theological hall were pleas- 
ant and profitable, and are remembered 
with grateful appreciation, though they 
were exceedingly trying to him on ac- 
count of inadequate preparation. 

For eight long years he had an uphill 
battle to fight, and during all those years 
he had to deny himself in many ways 
and of many things, that he might reach 


160 THE o’erturn o’ botany bay 

the end of his course. Physically he had 
not a large fund to draw upon, and 
financially he had a smaller one. 

In the commercial world he had sur- 
rendered a fine position with good pros- 
pects, for the sake of a college education 
and a missionary life in India. But he 
had his Father’s care. He was provided 
with a tutorship to two boys attending 
the grammar school, who were sons of a 
former employer. God’s children also 
were good to him, and by them the rough 
places of life were made smoother. 

He did not always find it an easy task 
to stand alongside of students who in 
early life had been more favored, and 
keep pace with them in the class-work. 
It sometimes meant to him whole nights 
without closing an eye in sleep, and an 
appearance in the lecture hall without 
having changed his garments. It meant 
the burning of the midnight oil, which 
is literally the burning up of the man 
himself. Sleep, honest, sound, good sleep, 
is the best preparation for effective study, 
and also for thoughtful, vigorous pulpit 
address. He has said : 


JACK AT THE UNIVERSITY l6l 

“ I have lived long enough to discover 
it, and I am sorry I did not discover it 
sooner, and greatly regret that our college 
professors fail so often to warn young 
men against burning the candle at both 
ends, by unreasonable and unseasonable 
habits of study.” But as Grannie Foster 
said : “ Bought wit is the best wit of all.” 

Gatin was no favorite of Jack’s, but he 
had a passion for Greek and Hebrew, 
logic, rhetoric, English literature and 
moral philosophy. Though not a genius, 
he had pluck, and was a plodder. He 
would do or die. He had no time for 
aught else than the thing in hand. He 
believed that as in business so in the 
matter of education, “honesty is the best 
policy,” and he never has seen cause to 
change his opinions. His life motto has 
been, “ Fear God and do the right,” with 
“All things come to those who wait.” 

Hebrew was taught by the principal, 
who was one of the grandest of men, a 
princely man, a man of God in truth, a 
manly man, and the student’s friend. 
He hated all shamming, shams, and mean- 
ness, and his denunciations of wrong 

L 


1 62 THE O’ERTURN O* BOTANY BAY 

and wrong-doing were scathing and mer- 
ciless. He was a great admirer of Doc- 
tor Andrew Fuller, primed with his the- 
ology, and at the time was regarded as 



standing midway between the contending 
parties in the denomination, the high 
and dry Calvinist and the semi-Pelagian 
Arminian. By the opposing parties he 
was often misunderstood and misrepre- 
sented, and so were the students who 


JACK AT THE UNIVERSITY 1 63 

sympathized with him in his doctrinal 
views. 

Some entered school with their opin- 
ions fixed, prepared to spend their last 
breath for their cherished theological 
ideas. The principal never sought to 
thrust his views upon the students. He 
laid down principles, he sustained them 
by scriptural arguments, and allowed the 
students to draw their own conclusions. 
All that he required of a young man was 
the evidence that he was understood and 
that he had profited by his instructions. 
In systematic theology all he demanded 
was a decent, honest attempt to repro- 
duce in essay form the substance of each 
of his lectures. Once a week these were 
read before the class and criticized. The 
student had to give the principal’s views 
and not his own, and the failure to do 
this often led to ludicrous and painful 
scenes, and even to a desertion of the 
school. 

The “ sons of the heather,” men from 
the Highlands and Islands, would advance 
their extreme Calvinism, and it might be, 
unwittingly attack both the lecturer and 


164 THE O’ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

those students who had endeavored to 
give a fair synopsis of the lecture. The 
training, as far as it went, was thorough 
and helpful, the only fault was that too 
little time was given to do any profitable 
thinking. It was all drive, “ Go on, go 
on ! ” 

In sermonizing the good doctor favored 
most the expository style, and earnestly 
urged its adoption as the only one that 
would hold a congregation and build 
up a strong church. 

In all expository attempts he demanded 
sense and not nonsense ; mere verbiage 
or silly spiritualizing did not meet with 
his approval, and he was death on ad- 
jectives. He ever demanded facts and 
principles and clearness of statement. 
Many of the young men most popular 
with the congregations were the least 
successful in the class-room. He would 
say to such students when called upon 
by him to read, “ Give us the bones of 
the subject and leave the stuffing until 
you are called upon to preach to a con- 
gregation.” 

On such occasions the essayist had to 


JACK AT THE UNIVERSITY 165 

go to the extreme end of a large hall 
and read to the professor and the class at 
the other end. The reader had to im- 
agine himself before a congregation 
whose attention he must secure. Pains 
were taken to instruct him that in ad- 
dressing an audience he must begin in 
such a tone or pitch of voice as to reach 
the most remote hearer. The voice must 
be leveled at his head and the eye fixed 
upon him. In speaking, the throat must 
be spared, and the teeth and the lips 
brought into play if there was to be dis- 
tinct enunciation and an avoidance of 
ministerial sore throat. Gesture must 
be natural, and but little of it. The stu- 
dent was given to understand that if he 
made suitable preparation for the pulpit 
he would have something to say and the 
language wherewith to clothe or express 
it, and the naturalness of his style of ad- 
dress would constitute its acceptability 
and power. 

Jack Foster frequently had the honor 
of preaching for the venerable doctor ; so 
often did he preach that he was regarded 
by some as his protkge. In after years a 


l66 THE O’ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

deacon said of him in introducing him 
to a large audience on an anniversary 
occasion, “ Friens. this bird is oot o' a 
glide nest.” A compliment to the prin- 
cipal. 


CHAPTER XII 


BINNIE AND UNION COURTS 

Not being untutored to suffering I learn to pity 
those in affliction. 

— Virgil. 

Deign on the passing world to turn thine eyes 
And pause awhile from learning to be wise. 

—Samuel Johnson. 

M ANY of the students in attendance 
at the university with the gospel 
ministry in view had to work their 
way through the slums of the city. They 
had on hand the university curriculum 
and the care of a large parish at the 
same time. The mission work provided 
the finances to carry them through col- 
lege. It also brought out what was in 
them of manhood and brotherhood and 
furnished a practical Christian educa- 
tion. It was a severe spiritual test, but 
could be passed if one had love to Jesus 
and to sinners. 

Jack was now a student at the univer* 

i6 7 


168 the o’erturn o’ botany bay 

sity and also in attendance at the Divinity 
Hall connected with his denomination, 
and during vacation time he did city 
mission work in a much worse locality 
than that of Botany Bay. 

The invasion of Botany Bay and the 
enlisting of its men and women in favor 
of the gospel was mere “bairns’ play ” to 
the invasion of Binnie and Union Courts. 
Binnie Court was in itself a whole town. 

The respectable, the riff-raff, the vi- 
cious, and the vagabond classes all had 
their representatives in the tenements 
of Binnie Court. It was a quadrangle, 
and consisted of front, mid, and two back 
and two side tenements. The right hand 
side tenement was the most populous, as 
it housed at least forty families. To at- 
tack such a crowd one needed special 
grace, courage, and tact, and a freedom 
from over-fastidiousness as to what he 
might hear, witness, and even smell every 
day. Jack has said : “ Time and again 
my heart has thumped against my ribs 
as if to break out of prison, and my 
blood has run cold as I have stood before 


% 


% 





170 THE O’ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

a door knocking for admittance and 
waiting a response. I did not know what 
the open door might reveal, or how to 
receive the revelation of human degra- 
dation and misery other than in the 
spirit of compassion. In that court there 
were places of vice, shebeens, and thieves’ 
dens. It was a work of time to place 
them, and then to enter them in appa- 
rent ignorance of their character with a 
view to spiritually aid their inmates. 
The inmates never deceived me nor made 
any attempt to do so ; they had never to 
be charged with their sin, but were 
always first to acknowledge it and to 
express their surprise at being sought out 
as worthy of Christian notice. Among 
a people so huddled together it was re- 
freshing to meet with a respectable, God- 
fearing family, who were housed there 
through force of circumstances, and, it 
might be, in the providence of God to 
serve as beacon lights amid the sur- 
rounding darkness and danger.” 

Jack was introduced to the Biunie 
Court folk by Mr. Morrison Smith, a 
good Christian and an experienced mis- 


BINNIE AND UNION COURTS 171 


sionary, a brother of the author of “The 


Pearl o’ Days.” It was 



membered. 

“ We were visiting in the side tene- 
ment or the worst part of the court, and 
had climbed up to the fifth flat, meaning 
to begin work there, and then to work 
our way down, thereby giving the tenants 
notice of our presence among them. In 
the dim light of the long lobby we 
groped our way, drew up at a door, and 
knocked for admittance. It was, as we 
afterward learned, the home of Dugald 
Gunn, a Skye Highlander and a Roman 
Catholic. Mrs. Gunn answered the door, 
and Mr. Smith said to her : 

“ ‘ My good woman, I have come to in- 
troduce to you my young friend, who is 
to labor from this time on as missionary 
in the district, and we would like to have 
a bit talk with you on the subject of re- 
ligion if you have no particular objec- 
tions.’ 

“ Mrs. Gunn flared up all of a sudden, 
and poor Smith found out that here was 
no ordinary gun, but a veritable blunder- 
buss, ‘ I doo not want ony o’ your re- 


172 THE O’ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

lajshon, and dinna need tae hae your re- 
lajshon, and none o’ you are tae tarken 
my tor or tae pother me wi’ your relajshon. 
We hae oor ain relajshon. Your relaj- 
shon be o’ the Teevil himsel’ and so it is.’ 

“ ‘ Please, my good woman, what is 
your relajshon ? ’ 

“Her response was, ‘The very Teevil 
himsel’ is in you ; gang awa’ frae t’is tor 
a’ mine, and dinna pollute tae place wi’ 
your heretical presence.’ 

“ Smith fired up at this, and said : ‘My 
woman, if the Teevil be in me there be 
seeven teevils in you,’ unawares that he 
was mimicking her. 

“Just at this moment Dugald, who 
was sitting by the fire smoking, jumped 
up from his seat with a yell, picked up 
an axe, made for the door, and rushed at 
Smith. Dugald was raging mad and 
foaming at the mouth and had murder 
in his eye. It was really bloodcurdling 
to see that infuriated Hieland man after 
poor Smith with an axe, and Smith go- 
ing down the long stone stairways, three 
steps at a time. When he was at the 
court level his wheezing could be heard 


BINNIE AND UNION COURTS 1 73 

away up in the fourth story, as he was 
much afflicted with asthma. The exer- 
tion to keep a good way ahead of the 
Gunn and out of the way of the axe, and 
the excitement, almost cured him of his 
distressing complaint. He was, at any 
rate, a different man when I rejoined him 
in Argyle Street. 

“ Up in the fourth story I had to hold 
my ground and stand to my guns like a 
man. I was not mixed up in the quarrel, 
and made up my mind to brave it out. 
Dugald was now one of my charge in 
Binnie Court and I would have to meet 
him often. He returned from his unsuc- 
cessful chase, demanding of me, ‘Wha’ 
pe you ? and what dae you doo ? and 
what wae doo you stand at my tor?’ I 
said : 1 Mr. Gunn, I am a brother man, 
and have come to make a friendly call 
and to ascertain who lives here, and also 
their religious profession, and with no de- 
sire to interfere with your religion, or to 
rob you of it, but if possible to assist 
you to get a little more.’ 

‘“Umph, tat indeed pe your errand 
tae my tor?’ 


174 the o’erturn o’ botany bay 

“ ‘ Yes, sir,’ was my reply. 

“ ‘ Well, pe it known tae you noo wha’ 
leeves here in t’is lioose, and tat we doo 
not want your relajslion. Me and my 
wumman be weel satisfeed wi’ oor ain 
relajslion, which be the thrue relajslion, 
and no tae relajshon o’ an apostate pay- 
pie.’ 

“ I said to him, ‘Now, Dugald, between 
ourselves here, is there any true religion 
in running after that decent old gentle- 
man, armed with an axe, taking the name 
of God in vain, and uttering all kinds 
of profanities? Dugald, be honest with 
yourself ; is that the spirit of the religion 
of the Lord Jesus Christ ? Surely, that 
is not your religion. Dugald, are you a 
Christian?’ His answer was, ‘I pe a 
true Christyan, and a’ my payple be true 
Christyans years and years pefore we 
hear o’ your relajshon.’ ‘Well, Dugald, 
I am a Christian, and the Christ who 
must save you and me, if we are ever 
saved at all, has said to his followers 
everywhere, “ Bless and curse not. Love 
your enemies.” Now, Dugald, be honest 
with yourself, does that mean arm yourself 


BINNIE AND UNION COURTS 1 75 

with an axe, a murderous hatchet, and 
run after that old gentleman, who only 
has your good at heart, to shed his blood? 
I leave it to your own good sense. Now 
be honest ; did Jesus, the Saviour of sin- 
ners, mean you to do any such wicked 
thing ? ’ 

“ ‘ No, no, no,’ said Dugald, 1 he pe 
no tat kine o’ person whatever. My pluid 
was up. Ta auld man insulted my woo- 
man, and tas a’ apoot it. It was wrong 
o’ me ta doo it, but it was na’ richt o’ 
him tae insult ma wooman in her ain 
hoose.’ 

u I talked him into a quiet mood, and 
the storm subsided, and we were ever 
after friends, and friendly. A tussle of 
this kind made me yearn for some quiet 
resting-place, and I found it in the home 
of a poor Irish widow, a Methodist, who 
lived in one of the attics of the front 
tenement. She was a North-of-Ireland 
woman ; had two sons and a daughter ; 
had been a widow some years, and sup- 
ported herself by £ cawing pirns ’ (wind- 
ing yarns) off spools for the warpers. 
She was a good Christian woman, knew 


176 THE O’ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

her Bible well, and loved prayer and 
Christian fellowship. She was delighted 
to have me call, and to hear me read and 
explain the Scriptures and have prayer 
with her. It was an oasis in the desert. 

“ When badly troubled with the blues 
after visiting in the side tenement, I would 
quietly slip away to sit at the feet of the 
old widow, listening to her rehearsal of 
the Lord’s dealings with her. Her spirit 
of Christian hopefulness and valuable 
observations greatly cheered me, and 
after having prayer together I would set 
out to tame the ‘wild beasts’ in the side 
tenement. I11 all my contact with the 
dwellers in Binnie Court, I never was 
the subject of an unkind remark or act. 
My poor, feeble, imperfect efforts to aid 
them were appreciated, and the people 
made free to consult with me on many 
matters outside of my particular mission 
among them. I11 the other world I hope 
to meet with some of the Binnie Court 
folk to whom I ministered.” 

Such was his ministerial apprentice- 
ship, of priceless value, no doubt, in the 
battles to be fought in after life. 








1 1 

P * 



1 | 

E3 . w • 




; ^ 


. y/,v, I* - «» 



•^BBaa8B& 






178 THE O’ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

Christian work in those places de- 
manded three things not too common : 
“Grace, grit, and gumption.” I11 every- 
day English, gumption is common sense. 
Mr. Foster has said : “ In my visitation I 
have often found myself inside of a 
dwelling where the one thing in urgency 
was a manly retreat, and to make it 
in such a way as to meet the same par- 
ties again, not as the conquered but as 
the victor. I11 my populous parish I 
had to be policeman, physician, nurse, 
preacher, teacher, and peacemaker. 

“ The questionable characters out sun- 
ning themselves on the main thorough- 
fare, or seeking to entrap their prey 
would, when they saw me in sight, be- 
take themselves to their hidings. They 
could be heard saying in an undertone : 
‘Oh, that is the missionary, Mr. Foster; 
let us get out o’ his gait, for any sake.’ 

‘ The wicked flee when no man pur- 
sueth : but the righteous are bold as a 
lion.’ 

“ There were Sabbath and week-night 
services in Binnie Court. In the mid- 
tenement a room was obtained from a 


BINNiE AND tfNION COURTS 1 79 

decent woman, whose father was an elder 
of one of the churches. This room was 
generally well filled, with as many Roman 
Catholics as Protestants in attendance. 
Few of those who attended ever entered 
a place of worship, but all of them were 
ready to attend a religious service in a 
neighbor’s house. In connection with 
the service in Watson’s there was much 
blessing, and it was a real pleasure to 
minister to the people. 

Scenes were witnessed in my visita- 
tion that chilled me to the marrow and 
made me shudder, but I found it politic 
not to show it. Among such characters 
as I had to encounter day after day, I 
discovered the need of push, tact, and 
principle, if my labors were not to prove 
empty and barren.” 

The value of tact is apt to be over- 
looked in dealing with men individually 
or in the aggregate, and there is an in- 
clination to trust zeal and readiness of 
speech to carry one through. But lack- 
ing tact the Christian worker will often 
find himself on a dangerous coast among 
the breakers, and he is likely to wreck 


i8o the overturn o ) botany bay 

himself completely as to spiritual useful- 
ness. 

It has been well said : “ Talent is some- 
thing, but tact is everything ; talent is 
serious, sober, grave, and respectable, but 
tact is all that and more too. It is not a 
seventh sense, but the life of all the five. 
It is an open eye, the quick ear, the judg- 
ing taste, the keen smell, and the lively 
touch ; it is the interpreter of riddles, the 
surmounter of difficulties, the remover of 
all obstacles. It is useful in all places and 
at all times, for it shows a man his way 
into the world ; it is useful in society, for 
it shows a man his way through the world. 
Talent is power, tact is skill ; talent is 
weight, tact is momentum ; talent knows 
what to do, tact knows how to do it ; 
talent makes a man respectable, tact 
makes him respected ; talent is wealth, 
tact is ready money.” 


CHAPTER XIII 


ADVENTURES IN THE COURTS 

Men of God have always, from time to time, 
walked among men, and made their commission 
felt in the heart and soul of the commonest hearer. 

— Emerson. 

A MONG the experiences encountered 
in Binnie Court was the funeral of 
one Tam Waterson, which Mr. Foster 
describes as follows : 

“ Tam was a horseshoer by trade and 
the support of a decent, hard-working 
widowed mother. Two of his sisters 
were making a brave effort to support 
themselves, but all lived under the one 
roof. Widow Waterson had seen better 
days, and it could be seen in the woman 
herself and in her well-kept house, which 
was what ordinary folk would call ‘ a bein 
hoose ’ (a house with a look of general 
comfort). Tam was an expert trades- 
man ; knew the science of his business 
and was in demand. But one day in 

181 


1 82 THE O’ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

shoeing a restive, ugly brute of a Clydes- 
dale, it kicked him unexpectedly in the 
pit of the stomach and he died in a little 
while. He scarcely regained conscious- 
ness. 

“ It was a sad and sore bereavement to 
that widowed mother, and completely 
broke her down. As she was in my dis- 
trict, I had to do all in my power to guide 
and comfort her, directing her mind to 
the only One who could give sympathy, 
comfort, and support in the dark hour of 
earthly sorrow, and who has promised to 
do so. 

“ The funeral service was at the widow’s 
house. It is not the Scottish custom to 
take the corpse to the church or to have 
a service at the grave. On the occasion 
named I read the eleventh chapter of 
John’s Gospel, gave a brief address of 
such a character as I thought the circum- 
stances demanded, and sought to do the 
most possible for the living by laying 
before them the gracious, loving, and 
sympathetic side of Christ’s character as 
brought out in the chapter, and then 
opening to them God’s saving plan as 


ADVENTURES IN THE COURTS 1 83 

taught in the Scriptures, and urging 
them to settle the matter of their own 
relation to God while the heart was ten- 
der, the mind thoughtful, and the time 
opportune. 

“ I prayed for the widow, the sorrow- 
ing family, and the relatives and neigh- 
bors, and that God would make each one 
of them his own for both worlds, this 
and the next, filling them with heavenly 
comfort and peace. The service to me 
was trying in the extreme, but what 
came after was still more so. 

“ Oat-cake, cheese, short-bread, wine, 
biscuits, and whisky were brought out in 
accordance with country custom, but it 
was a new thing to me. A douce- (soft) 
spoken elder of the kirk came over to 
me where I stood and whispered in my 
ear in a winning way, 1 You wull kindly 
gie thanks for the mercies.’ Here was a 
trial. I had been several years a rigid 
abstainer and a temperance worker, and 
I was called upon at a religious service 
to give thanks for whisky. What was I 
to do ? Was I to refuse to pray or was I 
to sanction that which I had pledged 


184 the o’erturn o’ botany bay 

myself to discountenance ? Was I to ac- 
knowledge to the Almighty that whisky 
is one of his good creatures? I made a 
compromise and prayed : 

“ ‘ O Lord, sanctify and bless this afflic- 
tive providence of thine to one and all, 
and if thou canst bless what we would 
now use to the refreshing and nourishing 
of our mortal bodies, be pleased to do it, 
as we ask all in the name of Jesus our 
Lord. Amen.’ 

“ Whisky was then offered to me and 
quietly refused ; then wine, and declined 
also. It proved to be the best temper- 
ance meeting I ever conducted. It was 
not what I said, but what I did not say 
that made my testimony effective that 
day.” 

Another experience he recounts as fol- 
lows : 

“ In an adjoining tenement of the 
same court, on the ground floor, there 
was another poor widow who was not so 
comfortable. She also had a son and 
two daughters, but the son, a good trades- 
man, though alive might have been better 
dead for aught of help or comfort he was 


ADVENTURES IN THE COURTS 1 85 

to his mother at certain seasons. He 
was an expert tradesman when he was 
sober, but that was not often, or for very 
long at a time. He was a hard drinker 
and so was “ Big Mary,” one of his sis- 
ters. He was known as Big Jim, the 
snab (shoemaker). When he got on a 
spree he would sell his clothes, his seat, 
and kit of tools, and even go so far as to 
drag the bed from under his widowed 
mother and pawn it to get whisky. - 
‘ When sober, ’ she said, ‘ there could not 
be a better son than Jim Thomson.’ 

“ He was a well-built, fine-looking man, 
and stood over six feet in his stockings, 
had a fair education, and was a great 
reader. He had read deistical books, and 
was a fatalist in his religious ideas. One 
day, at his mother’s request, I made a 
visit just when he was sobering off and 
settling down to work. She thought and 
had prayed too that God would use me to 
aid her boy to a better life. I found him 
on his seat. He had been to the shop and 
had got out a job, and was busy lasting 
a pair of men’s gaiters. As I entered 
the room, I said : 


1 86 THE O’ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

“ ‘ 1 am glad to see you at work and 
yourself again, Jim. I am surprised that 
a man of your years, intelligence, and 
general good sense, and after all your 
reading, should give way to such a vile 
habit, bringing misery to yourself and 
your poor old mother and all concerned. 
Jim, like a man, give it up altogether ; 
be a man and a Christian and a credit 
and a comfort to your widowed mother.’ 

“ ‘It’s a’ very weel,’ said he, ‘for you to 
talk ; you were born glide, and hae never 
been a drinker, and you ken naething 
aboot the power the drinking habit has 
o’er a man. I tell you I canna gie it up 
altogether, and it’s useless for me to try. 
It’s constitutional wi’ me. God made me 
this way and has gi’en me a tempera- 
ment that demands the drink. Had he 
meant me to be a sober man he would 
hae gi’en me a different organization, and 
I would hae been a sober man like your- 
sel’, and also a releegious man.’ 

“ My reply was, ‘ Jim, if your reason- 
ing is to hold, how is it that you are 
sober and not drunk to-day ? Is it not 
because you have got satiated and your 


ADVENTURES IN THE COURTS 1 87 

funds exhausted? Be honest now, did 
you ever make a decent, determined effort 
to give up the drink ? Did you ever see 
the evil of the habit and how you are 
killing your poor mother and bringing 
down her gray hairs with sorrow to the 
grave ? Did you ever humbly acknowl- 
edge your sin and your weakness to 
Almighty God, requesting him in his 
Son’s name to pardon your sin and put 
away your guilt ? Did you ever ask him 
to give you the will pow T er to say no and 
hold to it in the hour of temptation ? ’ 

u He confessed that he had not. I 
counseled him not to saddle his sin on 
the L,ord until he had in faith sought his 
aid and had been denied it. I read and 
prayed with him, but he remained a fatal- 
ist. He could do nothing, and it was no 
use trying. I desired to know if God 
would last the gaiters for him without 
the use of his own will, judgment, skill, 
good taste, and muscular power. In re- 
ply he said : 

“ ‘ The cases are no parallel. I canna 
mak’ mysel’ different frae what God has 
made me.’ 


1 88 the o’erturn o’ botany bay 

“ ‘Jim ’ I inquired, ‘ did you ever ask 
God in all earnestness to make you dif- 
ferent ? Did you ever really wish to be 
different?’ I left him with a sad heart, 
yet hoping for the best.” 

Mrs. Delaney, an Irish Roman Catho- 
lic widow and her daughter lived in one 
of the houses on the ground floor of the 
mid-tenement. She was regarded as a 
bigoted Roman Catholic, and Mr. Foster 
was warned not to go near her ; if he did 
it might lead to serious trouble. This 
information led him to hold back for a 
time, but his conscience was uneasy the 
while. There came a day when he was 
put on his metal. He says : 

“ I was passing the door which stood a 
bit ajar on my way upstairs to the Wat- 
ersons’. I could see the old lady busy at 
the wash-tub, and the daughter beside 
the window busy sewing, and both of 
them saw me. It seemed mean and 
cowardly to pass the door without at least 
saying ‘Good-morning, Mrs. Delaney.’ I 
made a halt, pushed the door open a little 
more, and said : ‘ Good-morning, grannie ; 
I see you are busy at the tub.’ 


ADVENTURES in The COURTS 189 

“ ‘ Good-marning, sur ; shure we ’ave 
to do it, for there would be no living fur 
the loikes of uz.’ 

“ ‘ May I come in for a minute or two 
to have a little talk with you and your 
daughter? ’ 

“ ‘ Shure, sur, you could do uz no good 
whatever by any of youre talk, as you 
and ourselves are not of the same re- 
laijon.’ 

“ ‘Grannie, let me remind you there is. 
but one true religion, that of the Lord 
Jesus Christ.’ 

“ ‘ Shure you are right in that, sur.’ 

“ ‘Do you, grannie, believe in the Cord 
Jesus Christ as the only Saviour of sin- 
ners ? ’ 

“ ‘ Bless your sowl, why should I not? 
Shure I would be a haythen if I did not 
belaive on him. I have the fayth and I 
am a praying woman.’ 

“ ‘ Well then, grannie, I believe in the 
Lord Jesus Christ, and love him, and pray 
to him ; might I not be allowed to enter 
and have a little talk with you about our 
blessed Lord and the love of God to us 
in him ? ’ 


190 The overturn o* botany bay 

“ ‘ Fayth and if it be that you are go- 
ing to talk abowt you may come in and 
welcome.’ 

“I entered, seated myself by the door, 
bade them go on with their work and not 
to allow my presence to hinder them in 
their duties. I read to them the third 
chapter of John’s Gospel and gave a sim- 
ple running comment 011 what was read. 
I had some pleasant conversation on the 
plan of salvation, the loving almighty 
Saviour, the one mediator between God 
and man and the only Saviour of sinners. 
Both listened most respectfully. ‘ And 
now, grannie, as we have got along so far 
nicely in our talk, would you have any 
objections to joining me in a word of 
prayer to the living, loving Jesus?’ 

“ ‘ None in the world, sur.’ 

“We knelt together 011 the sanded 
deal floor and talked to Jesus himself. I 
opened my heart to him in great ten- 
derness, and prayed him to bless our con- 
verse, and that he would bless the widow 
and her orphan daughter, and that he 
would make them his own true followers 
in this life that it might be well with 


ADVENTURES IN THE COURTS 191 

them ill the life to come. When we rose 
from our knees the old lady caught my 
hand in both of hers, saying : 

“‘You ’ave done my poor old sowl 
good, this blessed marning. You ’ave, 
shure. The good God bless you fur a 
perfect gintleman, and the furst wan ’o 
your sort that ever came into my howse 
and behaved as you have done to-day. 
Now, mind you never pass my door with- 
out spaking to me, for a word will always 
be welcome. May the good God bless 
you ever wid his smile and howld you 
up in the path ove righteousness ! ’ 

“ It was for me a victory ; God be 
praised. Others had annoyed and in- 
sulted the old lady, worrying her about 
purgatory, confession, absolution, the 
Virgin Mary, and the saints, but had 
never addressed themselves to the citadel 
of the heart, and so had had the door 
closed against them. It is much better 
to talk on the things about which we are 
agreed ; our differences will be reached 
soon enough, and if we have set out 
right we will then be the better able to 
deal with them. No doubt, as workers, 


192 the overturn o’ botany bay 

others had zeal and talent, but they were 
lacking in tact. I felt I had a right to 
praise God for enabling me to read 
to and talk with and pray for that 
very bigoted Roman Catholic wo- 
man. 

“ Sometimes I had to step in be- 
tween fighting women. The fight 
generally began with the tongue, 
then it came to blows, screams, and 
a general uproar and cries of ‘mur- 
der.’ A fight by degraded women 
is a sad spectacle. To overmaster 
such demanded forethought, will 
power, and self-crucifixion. A 
strong hand and a loving heart could 
work wonders with the most degraded of 
them. On the most trying occasions I 
never uttered an unkind word ; but the 
look of my eye was enough for the most 
violent and wicked of them. The cast 
of the eye would make them slink away 
out of sight. Many can resist the tongue 
who have to succumb to the eye. ‘ Jesus 
looked on Peter.’ ” 

In going upstairs to the third flat 
one morning, Mr. Foster was met with 



ADVENTURES IN THE COURTS 1 93 

screams and shouts of, “Murder, murder, 
111-u-r-d-e-r ! ” 

“ When I reached the landing, I found 
a number of women in dishabille, and 
two of them engaged in a hand-to-hand 
encounter and fighting like men. The 
short-gown sleeves were rolled up, the 
hair drawn back and drawn up into a 
tight coil as a precautionary measure. 
They were in grips and pummeling each 
other in a most fearful fashion. One of 
them had a badly swollen face and a 
black eye ; the other was bleeding pro- 
fusely and was covered with bites and 
scratches, and had her short gown torn 
to tatters. One of them was a real 
virago, a ravening wild beast. I walked 
up to them coolly as if nothing unusual 
was going on, and quietly whispered into 
the ear of the wild woman : 

“ ‘ Mrs. D , I am surprised to see a 

woman like you engaged in a scrap of 
this kind. I always thought you a woman 
of sense, and that you had enough self-re- 
spect to keep you from engaging in such 
a degrading performance. Now, please, 
give over for your own sake and for the 

N 


194 the o’erturn o’ botany bay 

peace and good name of the neighbor- 
hood.’ 

“ They relaxed at once their grip of each 
other, and each made for her own door, 
weeping the while, and each blaming the 
other as the occasion of the quarrel and 
the disgraceful scene. It was about some 
trivial thing. I followed them up, going 
first into the house of the one and then 
into that of the other, and got to under- 
stand the quarrel ; gave each suitable 
advice and had prayer with both. Out- 
wardly I was calm and collected, but in- 
wardly I was very different. It was a 
tremendous strain on my nervous system, 
and an incident not soon to be forgotten.” 

Mr. Foster says : “ Among such a 
crowd I had to be both physician and 
nurse, and attend both scarletina and 
smallpox. In treating such my favorite 
remedies were tincture of aconite and 
buttermilk. A few drops of the tinc- 
ture allayed the fever, and then a sponge- 
down with buttermilk cooled the skin 
and refreshed the patient. In smallpox, 
when the pustules were well formed, the 
buttermilk removed the temptation to 


ADVENTURES IN THE COURTS 1 95 

scratch. The eruption ran together and 
the milk and it formed a sheathing 
over the new skin, and then the whole 
came away at once, and so pock-pitting 
was prevented. I had no letters patent 
for this treatment of smallpox, but doz- 
ens of medical men have tried it and 
found it work like a charm. 

“ I had no thought of supplanting the 
regular physician, but many of those poor 
folk were not in the circumstances to call 
in medical aid, as payment in advance 
was generally demanded. It was a real 
pleasure to me to be able to relieve 
human suffering and to speak a word of 
spiritual comfort. 

“ Some of my fellow-believers scolded 
and upbraided me for tempting Provi- 
dence by going into such low places, but 
I remembered the pit out of which the 
Lord had digged me. These poor folk 
were human, among those for whom 
Christ died, and to whom the message 
of salvation was sent.” 

Mr. Foster says that he never was am- 
bitious to be the pastor of a leading city 
church : “ I loved to labor among the 


196 THE O’ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 


lowly poor and the outcast classes. I 
could see with my own eyes in them 
the operation of the grace of God in the 
self-elevation of its subjects. The dis- 
covery is not so easily made in wealthy 
society people, who are ever demanding 
a religion of culture and a scientific 
gospel in keeping with the age, and who 
in uniting with a church bargain for the 
ball-room, euchre parties, and theatricals. 

The city pastor in some 
quarters has a hard row to 
hoe, and is much to be 
pitied and prayed for. The 
slums in comparison is par- 
adise itself, salary or no sal- 
ary.” 



CHAPTER XIV 


ODD CHARACTERS 

How poor, how rich, how abject, how august, 
How complicate, how wonderful, is man. 

— Young. 

I N the spring of 1865 John Foster com- 
pleted his theological curriculum. 
The two vacations preceding it he had 
spent in charge of small churches at 
summer resorts on the Clyde and the 
Forth, and in both instances was the 
choice of the people themselves ; his 
services as student pastor were blessed to 
many, and he had much kindness shown 
to him by the people, many of whom he 
found to be the excellent of the earth. 

On both coasts he met grand types of 
Christian character, men and women who 
for a lifetime had been in the stress of 
the storm of opposition and ridicule for 
principle’s sake, and served as beacon 
lights. 

Odd characters are met with every- 

197 


198 THE O’ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

where, but some neighborhoods are 
more largely stocked with them than 



others, men and women whose mental 
gear is a little out of order, and who 
have failed to grip the very first princi- 
ples of the gospel of Christ. Mr. Foster 


ODD CHARACTERS 


199 


tells about a “Jamie Souter, a good- 
hearted, well-meaning young shoemaker, 
but not blessed with too much energy 
or ambition, and a wee bit destitute of 
‘ gumption.’ ” He was regarded as one of 
the very good by a number of ladies of 
uncertain age, all of them interested in 
Jamie as a “ dear, good man.” He had 
been missed from the services a whole 
day and Mr. Foster was concerned about 
him, as he had been most regular in his 
attendance. 

“ After the evening service,” says Mr. 
Foster, “ I was on my way to visit a sick 
person when I met Jamie Souter out for 
a stroll. I said to him, ‘ James, we missed 
you at the services all day and felt some- 
what concerned about you. Were you 
sick that you could not be with us ? ’ 

“ ‘ I wass weel enouf,’ said he, giving 
the peculiar drawl and burr of the dis- 
trict. ‘ I was i’ the very act o’ getting 
ready to gang oot to worship, and jist 
putting on my shirt collar when the but- 
ton cam’ aff, and that spyll’d me for the 
day, and I gie’d up the thocht o’ going 
oot altogether.’ 


200 THE O’ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

“ ‘ But, James, if you had been very 
anxious to go to church you surely could 
have sewn on a button, or for that part 
of it, made use of a pin.’ But said he in 
reply : 

“ ‘ It would never dae, ye ken, to sew 
on buttons on God’s ain day ; that kine ’o 
thing is for ither days o’ the week and 
no for the Sabbath day.’ 

“ Here was a man who could neglect 
the house of prayer and the Lord’s Sup- 
per for a strict observance of the Sab- 
bath, straining at a gnat and swallowing 
a camel.” 

As to oddities and oddness, Jamie Sou- 
ter was no exception in that locality : 
“ There was a Mary Sangster, who was a 
wee bit crazed on the Second Advent, 
and badly mixed in her ideas. At times 
she gave evidence that all was not right 
in her intellect.” 

At a very early hour one morning she 
came to Mr. Foster’s boarding-house door, 
singing in tones much more loud than 
musical : 

“ Awake, awake, the Lord has come, 

And now he has appeared.” 


ODD CHARACTERS 


201 


He says : “ I got up, partially dressed, 
raised the window sash, put out my head, 
and said in an injured tone : ‘ Mary, what 
is the meaning of all this noise at such 
an early hour? ’ 

“ Her reply was : ‘ Dear Mr. Foster, the 
Lord Jesus has suddenly come to his tem- 
ple ; are you no gled o’ it ? He is noo 
in Jerusalem, and we are a’ gaun to meet 
him, and you ken, as I like you, I hae 
come to get you to gang wi’ me tae the 
beautifu’ ceety.’ 

“ Here was I in an awkward fix. It 
required great tact to get out of it with- 
out wounding her, and get the poor de- 
mented creature home to her bed. I in- 
quired : ‘ Mary, do you know the road to 
Jerusalem ? I am not quite sure that I 
know it. Have you any idea of the dis- 
tance, the different countries to be passed 
through before getting there, and the 
number of languages spoken by the dif- 
ferent nations, and the time it would take 
to make the journey a-foot, as we are both 
poor and would have to foot it and beg 
our way ? ’ 

“ She innocently replied : ‘ I hinna 


202 THE O’ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

studied it up, but the Lord would 
provide and we could speir the gait (in- 
quire the way), and if we hadna the lan- 
guage we could mak’ signs, ony way.’ 

“ I then said : ‘ Look here, Mary, be- 
fore we set out on that journey, and such 
a long one, we had better make some 
suitable preparation. The Lord Jesus 
would not thank either of us if we were 
to meet him in Jerusalem, the golden, if 
we bungled this bit of business. He ex- 
pects all of his followers to show some 
common sense in their life arrangements. 
If the Lord Jesus was at Ay ton, or even 
in Edinburgh, or Glasgow, we might set 
out from where we are and just as we are, 
and the journey might be made in safety 
and with some degree of comfort too ; but 
to set out for Jerusalem at this early 
hour, and half-blind with sleep, unre- 
freshed and hungry, and no preparation 
whatever made, is not just the thing for 
good Christian folk to attempt. The 
Lord does not expect us to abuse the 
body, but to use it to his glory and to 
further his cause in the world. Mary, 
you had better go home and rest a wee 


ODD CHARACTERS 


203 


bit, and we will talk over matters a little 
later on and make proper arrangements.’ 

“Mary was satisfied and quietly went 
home to her bed. She was satisfied to 
remain in Fishertown, to have Jesus 
dwell in her heart by faith, and her body 
be the temple of the Holy Ghost. She 
gave up the thought of a material Jeru- 
salem of great splendor and the re-estab- 
lishment of Judaism. ‘ Words fitly spoken 
are like apples of gold in pictures of sil- 
ver.’ ” 

At one time there was a terrific storm 
off the rock-bound coast of Berwick, and 
the large herring fleet found a shelter in 
the harbor and offing, and the half-deals’ 
men had come ashore for enjoyment, 
which means, they drank and quarreled 
and made the air hideous with their 
shouts and profanities. The uproar in 
the village was unusual and there was a 
cry of murder, murder, m-u-r-d-e-r ! Wo- 
men were running to the beach shrieking. 
Mr. Foster was in his study preparing 
for the Thursday evening service when 
he heard the uproar and the distressing 
cries of the fisherwomen. He jumped 


204 the o’erturn o’ botany bay 

up, put on liis hat, and rapidly made for 
the beach. On his way he inquired of 
one and another the nature of the trouble, 
and the answer given him was : 

“ It’s brutal wark they are daeing at the 
beach. They are jist killin’ ither. Fine 
wark, indeed, for a lot o’ Christians. 
They are mair like Sooth Sea savages 
than ceevileezed folk. But nane o’ oor 
men are in it ; jist a lot ’o low Eerish 
and Hielan half-deals men, who, when 
fu’ o’ yule, canna agree but must jist 
fecht.” 

It was the herring fishing season, 
and a large fleet of decked vessels was 
engaged in its prosecution. The crews 
represented several nationalities, and 
each carried six men, half-deal’s men, or 
men not regularly engaged in the fishing 
business, but extra help ready to serve 
for a share of the catch during the sea- 
son. 

These men when ashore had imbibed 
too freely of “gude Scotch drink,” and 
it had roused their passions to the highest 
pitch, and had put the “ Eerish ” and the 
“ Hielan ” men in fighting trim and oppo- 


ODD CHARACTERS 


205 


site camps. The battle was on. A ring 
had been formed, sides taken, and the 
men who were fighting had their seconds 
and a referee. When Mr. Foster arrived 
on the ground the men were in grips and 
doing their best to throw each other. 
The combatants were an Irishman and a 
Highland man. They were stripped, 
and were pummeling each other in a 
most brutal way. The men were bleeding 
freely, and their naked bodies showed 
plainly the damage that had been in- 
flicted in the name of manly sport. How 
many rounds they fought we know not. 
The Highland man had the worst of it, 
was very excited and vicious, and about 
to use his teeth on his antagonist. Mr. 
Foster elbowed his way through the 
crowd and got inside of the ring and 
alongside of the naked warriors. He 
says : 

“ I took in the situation at once, and 
quietly stepped up to the Irishman and 
whispered into his ear: 1 My friend, I am 
surprised to find a sensible, good-looking 
fellow like you engaged in such un- 
seemly, brutal work. It is not a bit 


206 the o’erturn o’ botany bay 

manly of you to fight in this way, and 
you do not know in what it may end. If 
you please, give it up like a good fellow ; 
now, be a gentleman.’ 

“ He took breath, looked me in the 
face, and inquired : ‘ Are you a clergy- 
man ? ’ I replied in the affirmative : 
‘Then fur the sake of your riverence, 
and the throuble you ’ave put yourself 
to, I will quit and not strike another 
blow.’ 

“ And neither did he. I led him away 
to his clothes, and when clothed took 
him away off the grounds, on the way 
giving him good advice. 

“ It took half a dozen men to hold 
back the Highland man, infuriated and 
foaming at the mouth, and ready to de- 
vour all and sundry. The liquor had 
dethroned reason and the animal was 
rampant. The Highland men were not 
pleased with me for spoiling the fight, 
but I had done so by taking hold of the 
right man. The bringing of it to an end 
prevented the calling out of the military 
stationed at Greenlaw or Berwick. 

“ The fisherwomen said : ‘ Mr. Foster 


ODD CHARACTERS 


207 


did it gran’lie, and sae quietly tae. The 
minister’s a regular brick ; lie kens hoo 
tae dae it.’ I was not expected to do 
such things, but I could not refrain. In- 
terfere I must, in the interests of the com- 
mon good. I never laid myself out for it, 
but time and again I was in for it before 
I knew.” Mr. Foster said of one of these 
times : u I was on my way home from a 
toilsome day’s visitation, saw a crowd on 
the roadway and four constables han- 
dling a poor tipsy tradesman in a most 
brutal manner. They had thrown him 
down and were holding him down and 
beating him with their batons. Stewart 
was a well-to-do citizen, a master plumber, 
but in drink a terror to the whole neigh- 
borhood, and too much for the police. 
They were taking him to the lockup and 
he was resisting them with all his might, 
and they were bound they would beat him 
into subjection. I had to interfere ; my 
better nature compelled me to do it. I 
could not stand by and see the poor 
tradesman abused, even though he was 
drunk. I requested the policemen to 
give Stewart to me, and I promised them 


208 the o’erturn o’ botany bay 

I would take him quietly to the lockup. 
They willingly handed him over to me. 
When I had him upon his feet, I said : 
‘ Stewart, my good fellow, will you go 
quietly to the police station if I go with 
you ? I will see that you get fair play 
and that justice is done you.’ He at 
once said, ‘ I’ll gang wi’ you, sir, but not 

wi’ them And so arm in arm 

we went down the street, the police fol- 
lowing behind. It was better for all con- 
cerned that he went peaceably than that 
there should have been a scene, and the 
poor man get there battered, bruised, and 
bleeding. 

“ When Stewart sobered, he sobered. 
He found himself in a cell in the lock- 
up ; he had a racking headache and sore 
bones, and was covered with gore. 
‘Where am I, and hoo did I get here?’ 
‘ You have been resisting the constables, 
and thrashing them too, and to save you 
from unhappy consequences the young 
minister o’ the Dipper folk had to step in 
and tak’ you tae the lockup.’ It was 
enough ; his better judgment did the 
rest. ‘ I could hae thrashed the four 


ODD CHARACTERS 


209 


policemen and tied them lip in a knot, 
and diclited (wiped) the street wi’ them, 
the cowards ; but there is nae getting o’er 
my being taken tae the lockup by the 
minister. My certie, we maun hae look’d 
gran as we gae’d doon the street, me rear- 
ing fu’, and the minister sae quiet and 
kind.’ ” 

It was a unique temperance sermon, 
the minister’s taking of red-headed Stew- 
art, the plumber, to the lockup. 


o 


CHAPTER XV 


LOOKING TOWARD INDIA 

Far, far away, in heathen darkness dwelling 
Millions of souls forever may be lost ; 

Who, who will go, salvation’ s story telling, 
Looking to Jesus, heeding not the cost? 

FTER his graduation Mr. Foster 



/l was making special preparation for 
the foreign field, and expected to sail 
some time in the autumn for India. He 
was busy with certain medical studies, 
with a view to being helpful to suffering 
humanity, if needful. In the meantime 
he was ready to do at home what was 
expected of him when among a pagan 
people. 

Burke has said : “ It is by sympathy 
that we enter into the concerns of others, 
that we are moved, and are never suf- 
fered to be indifferent spectators of 
almost anything man can do or suffer. 
For sympathy may be considered as a 
kind of substitution by which we are put 


210 


Looking Toward India 21 i 

in the place of another man, and affected 
in many respects as he is affected.” 

Mr. Foster found that his daily effort 
in behalf of the ill-guided and suffering 
poor made a tremendous demand upon 
his sympathetic nature, and that a day’s 
“slumming,” as it is called, was more 
taxing and exhausting than preaching 
to a great congregation. Some one must 
do it, if we would get down to rock- 
bottom gospel principles. The Son of 
God became the Son of Man. He hum- 
bled himself in the body of our flesh, 
stooping down to our low level to live 
our life, and in the end bore the igno- 
miny and the suffering of the cross for 
the joy set before him, our redemption. 

Our fellow-sufferer yet retains 
A fellow-feeling of our pains, 

And still remembers in the skies, 

His tears and agonies and cries. 

While waiting the decision of the com- 
mittee of the Foreign Missionary Society, 
Mr. John Foster served as a supply in 
many of the towns of his native land, 
and generally with acceptance. 


2i2 the overturn o* boTAny Bay 

Several prominent brethren sought to 
dissuade him from going to India, setting 
before him the claims of the home land 
on a man of his nature. He was look- 
ing forward to his acceptance for foreign 
service. A missionary life was the pas- 
sion of his soul. 

He had read of Carey, Marshman, and 
Ward, Williams, Knibb, Burchell, W. C. 
Burns, Baker, Moffett, and Livingstone. 
He had witnessed J. G. Paton’s ordina- 
tion to go to the South Sea Islands, and 
he had been a city missionary like him- 
self, in connection with Dr. Symington’s 
congregation. He has lived to prove that 
the qualities needful to success were pos- 
sessed by him. 

“When July at last arrived,” says Mr. 
Foster, “ I was invited to meet the com- 
mittee in London, and have it settled as 
to my going to India. I set out on the 
evening of the twenty -fourth, arrived in 
London next morning, and appeared be- 
fore the committee. I set out, placing 
my whole case in God’s hands, prepared 
either for the best or the worst, and it 
was well that I could do so. The com- 


LOOKING TOWARD INDIA 21 3 

mittee is representative of all parts of the 
United Kingdom, and it was then in pos- 
session of my whole history, and had 
certificates as to the state of my health, 
my standing at college, at the theologi- 
cal hall, my relation to my own pastor, 
and my interest in Christian work gener- 
ally. 

“ I had a kindly introduction to the 
brethren, and they seemed to take a 
special interest in their young brother 
from north of the Tweed. I was ques- 
tioned on the matter of personal piety 
and the enjoyment I had in religion, my 
views of Bible truth and church polity, 
my proposed plan of work as a mission- 
ary and my reasons for preferring the 
foreign to the home field. I answered 
to the best of my ability, and my answers 
seemed to meet with approval. A 
doughty knight was in the chair, but 
business soon called him away, and the 
chair was taken by Dr. Dowson, of Brad- 
ford. He put a few questions to me, the 
leading one of which was : 

“ ‘ My young brother, suppose God in 
his providence shut up your way, owing 


214 THE o’erturn o’ botany bay 

to the state of our finances, would you 
or could you labor as contentedly at 
home as on the foreign field ? ’ 

“ My reply was : 1 It would be a sore 
disappointment not to be able to go to 
India, having had it before my mind so 
many years, and having made special 
arrangements for it. Yet God’s will in 
the matter is everything, mine nothing. 
Whether at home or abroad, the Master 
and the work are the same. God’s will 
is my choice.’ 

“ The chairman said : ‘ That is the 
right way to look at it, my brother, it’s 
sensible.’ 

“ Another young man and myself were 
accepted for the foreign field. It was 
not fully communicated to us until next 
morning, when we appeared at the Mis- 
sion House. It was then explained that 
we had been accepted as fit and proper 
persons to go to India ; but the commit- 
tee, owing to lack of funds, could not 
send us, and did not know when it would 
be possible to do so. I received the news 
with a feeling of sadness. I was disap- 
pointed. My companion was distracted, 


LOOKING TOWARD INDIA 215 

wept, and made some extraordinary state- 
ments, which I laid to his natural tem- 
perament and his lack of knowledge of 
the world. We were opposites. He was 
imaginative and demonstrative ; I was 
reserved and matter-of-fact, but did not 
feel less keenly. If God had seen fit we 
might have made a good working team 
in the foreign field. 

“ I was to have gone out with Brethren 
Robinson and Evans on their return, and 
was likely to be stationed at Dacca, 011 
the Brahmapootra River, in Bengal. I 
was deemed a fit man for the place. I 
was urged by the elder secretary not to 
return at once to Glasgow, but to remain 
in Rondon, for the time being, to get 
acquainted with the brethren and the 
churches, but as a disappointed man, and 
Scotchman-like, my reply was : 

“ 1 Sir, I did not come to London to go 
sight-seeing, or as bent on pleasure. My 
only errand was to meet the committee, 
and that has been accomplished. If there 
is no money to send me to India there is 
no money to keep me in London. I leave 
for home to-morrow.’ 


216 the o’erturn o’ botany bay 

“I do not try to justify myself ; per- 
haps if again placed in the same circum- 
stances I would not do it, but the die had 
been cast. My attitude gave offense to 
the senior secretary, a bluff, good-hearted 
Yorkshire man. He had seen I was dis- 
appointed, and had desired to let me 
down easily, and also to break the force 
of the agitation likely to spring up in 
Scotland over my failure to go to India 
as expected by the Scottish churches. 

“ While in London I made up my mind 
to see as much as possible of the worst 
as well as the best side of its life. I took 
in as many of the sights usually seen by 
visitors as could be seen in the time I 
had at my disposal. I did not desire to 
study architecture or to fortify my knowl- 
edge of history. I desired to study hu- 
man nature, and to compare the slums 
of London with those of my native city. 
Poor human nature was the same. In 
the poorer districts London’s sanitary 
arrangements were more favorable to 
health. The use of liquor by all classes 
in London was more general than in my 
native city. In Scotland the use of liquor 


LOOKING TOWARD INDIA 21 J 

is more of a social custom, and the use of 
the bottle is regarded as a pledge of 
friendship, while in England the use of 
liquor is regarded as a necessary of life, 
and the prerequisite to a good day’s 
work. In Eondon, in proportion to the 
population, there is a greater number of 
degraded women than in Glasgow, though 
the latter’s type is coarser and more re- 
pelling. The public houses or shops 
were crowded with them. 

“I noticed that beer could be bought 
in the open street just as freely as milk 
in Scotland. Men in smock-frocks car- 
ried it about in large cans hanging from 
a yoke on their shoulders. As they went 
through the streets they shouted, ‘ Beer, 
b-e-e-r, b-e-e-r ! ’ and the mechanics and 
laborers hearing the peculiar call, would 
leave their job to get their penn’orth of 
beer and then return to their job. 

u From the golden ball, on the top of 
the dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral I got a 
fine view of the great city. I heard a 
choral service in the cathedral, and in- 
spected its monuments On Thursday I 
went to Newington Tabernacle to hear 


218 THE O’ERTURN o’ BOTANY BAY 

Spurgeon at home, and found him the 
same at home as abroad, the prince of 
preachers, and London’s greatest preach- 
er. He had blood earnestness. He did not 
preach to entertain men, but to save men. 
He spoke as a man with a message and 
a message worth receiving. He told it 
in a way that could be credited and easily 
understood. He spoke with unction and 
power. 

“ In childhood’s days I had read a good 
deal about historic London, and it was 
now found serviceable in going through 
London without a guide or friend. 

“ Before I left I had the honor of 
dining at the ‘ Freemason’s Tavern,’ a 
noted place. The knighted chairman 
gave the dinner to the committee on his 
being elected as member for Bristol in 
the House of Commons. Outside of the 
missionary committee there were but 
three others present, a respected brother 
from Canada representing the Grand 
Ligne Mission, the other missionary-elect 
and myself. The Grand Ligne agent, to 
economize, had come over on a sailing 
vessel, and was most anxious to obtain a 


LOOKING TOWARD INDIA 2ig 

hearing, but there was no room for him, 
and he was promised so many guineas if 
he would refrain from making a speech. 
Like myself he had had a disappoint- 
ment, and felt it. 

“ I was closely watched by the secre- 
tary, and he was not slow to notice that 
I did not share in the festivities, refusing 
wine as it was passed along by the gen- 
tlemanly waiters. He was afraid lest I 
should carry away the idea that the din- 
ner was at the expense of the society. 
So at the close of the dinner he was 
careful and painstaking to inform me 
that it was provided by the doughty 
knight, member-elect for the city of 
Bristol, and chairman of the missionary 
society. I did not need the information, 
and had no thoughts of turning the din- 
ner episode to the disadvantage of for- 
eign missions, but I had my own thoughts 
of its cost and its utility, and more espe- 
cially at a time when the services of ac- 
ceptable men could not be utilized for 
lack of funds. I did some mental arith- 
metic. But it is one way of the knight 
honoring the committee and the commit- 


220 THE O’ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

tee honoring the member-elect for Bris- 
tol. It was my misfortune to be Scotch, 
and a believer in the eternal fitness of 
things. 

“ The secretary said to me, 1 Now, 
do not return to Scotland with a poor 
opinion of us, and do not write home as 
yet anything about yourself. I wish to 
see you and to have a chat with you.’ 
He dissuaded me from writing ; next 
morning I met him at his office, gave him 
my modest bill of expenses, received 
payment, also a letter explaining to my 
Scottish friends how the case stood, my 
acceptance by the committee and the 
discouraging state of the funds. 

“I left by train that evening from Eus- 
ton Square Station, it being the nearest 
to my boarding-house, a place noted for 
respectability, comfort, and moderate 
charges, and was soon on my way to the 

Land of brown heath and shaggy woods, 

Land of the mountains and the floods. 

“ I was in the city of my birth next 
morning. Home again within a week, 
and as a man roused out of a dream.” 


CHAPTER XVI 

FOREIGN MISSIONS OR HOME? 


Jesus, Master, whom I serve, 

Though so feebly and so ill, 
Strengthen hand and heart and nerve 
All thy bidding to fulfill ; 

Open thou mine eyes to see 
All the work thou hast for me. 

Jesus, Master, wilt thou use 

One who owes thee more than all ? 
As thou wilt, I would not choose, 
Only let me hear thy call ; 

Jesus, let me always be 
In thy service glad and free. 


HEN John Foster returned to his 



native city after his brief sojourn 


in Eondon, and it became known, as it 
soon did, that the missionary society was 
unable to send him, it was the opinion of 
many that it was the will of God that he 
should remain in his native land. 

“ If God meant him to go he would 
have provided the means to go.” “ Why 


221 


222 THE overturn o* botany bay 

should he not settle down contentedly at 
home and do the same kind of work 
that he proposes to do abroad ? We have 
lots of room in the home land for just 
such work, and in some respects just as 
great need, and Mr. Foster is the man to 
do it.” 

The good doctor, head of the theologi- 
cal school, said : “ Why, there is Wabster- 
ton, an important manufacturing town, a 
little way west of the city, where we 
have no denominational representation, 
and at present there is an opening there 
for evangelistic effort. Why not go there, 
do the work of an evangelist, and in time 
organize a church ? If you go there, 
Mr. Foster, we will co-operate with you, 
and do our utmost to provide a fair and 
reasonable support.” 

Eminent and respected brethren in 
the ministry also urged that this step 
might be taken. Mr. Foster craved time 
to think it out and to lay it before God in 
prayer. After much thought and prayer 
for counsel he decided to go to Wabster- 
ton. “ I had,” he says, “ never been 
there, did not know any one in the place, 


FOREIGN MISSIONS OR HOME 223 

but learned that there were some friendly 
spirits, and went out in faith not know- 
ing whither I went. 

“Not going to India was a big disap- 
pointment to many of my friends and 
well-wishers, who had watched my career 
with interest, and had set their hearts on 
my going to the foreign field as likely to 
link the Scottish churches more closely 
with the missionary society. The 
churches in the west would have had 
one of their own men in India. 

“ One good brother, now in North 
British America and noted for his great 
preaching ability and originality, meet- 
ing me on the public thoroughfare one 
day on his way to business, said : ‘ And 
so, after all, Mr. Foster, you are not go- 
ing to India. It is really too bad, and I 
am very sorry for you. Man, I would 
rather sell my shirt than see you stuck 
for the lack of the means to go.’ I had 
known this good brother, and his father 
also, from earliest childhood, as earnest, 
good men, men of God, able and faith- 
ful ministers of Jesus Christ. The father 
was a noted open-air preacher on the 


224 T H E OVERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

Green, where he made use of a portable 
pulpit. He was senior pastor of the 
‘ People’s Church,’ a big, handsome man, 
large head, fine countenance, and had a 
generous heart. He always wore a broad- 
brimmed silk hat, and the boys named 
him, ‘auld Broad-brim, the preacher.’” 

Early in the autumn of 1865 Mr. Fos- 
ter began his mission work in Wabster- 
ton. He rented a room in the Corn Ex- 
change, issued posters announcing a gos- 
pel service, and at once commenced 
house-to-house work among the poor 
and non-church-going classes. A con- 
gregation soon gathered, conversions 
took place, so also baptisms. A church 
was organized and Mr. Foster was pastor- 
elect. Everything augured success. 

This was the aspect of things when 
he was notified that the committee of 
the missionary society, at the autumnal 
meetings of the union at Bradford, had 
decided to sustain him financially from 
that date forward, and that he was to 
take some extra medical classes at the 
university, with a view to going to Dacca, 
in India, the following autumn. He had 


FOREIGN MISSIONS OR HOME 225 

not, up to this date, touched a penny of 
the society’s money further than his 
traveling expenses to and from London, 
yet he was treated as one of the society’s 
agents. 

He says : “ I had formed new connec- 
tions and the secretary knew it. He 
was aware that a congregation had been 
gathered, a church organized, and that I 
was the pastor-elect, and that friends 
had pledged my support in Wabster- 
ton. The new field was not of my 
seeking, and the financial support was 
given because the friends believed that 
I was called of God to the work in Wab- 
sterton. 

“ Here was a complication. I craved 
time to work my way honorably out of 
the Wabsterton arrangement, afraid lest 
a sudden rupture of relations would dam- 
age the infant cause now so full of prom- 
ise. I still had a strong desire to go to 
India ; my heart’s promptings went that 
way. The secretary would have me make 
an absolute surrender to authority. I 
could not and would not obey and wrong 
my conscience, as I believed I would do, 


226 THE O’ERTURN o’ BOTANY BAY 

if I at that juncture deserted the strug- 
ling little company in Wabsterton, 
whom I had been instrumental in bring- 
ing together. I deemed that it would be 
most unfair to them, and also to the 
brethren who had bound themselves to 
support me as a missionary pastor. There 
matters stood. He would not budge a 
jot, but sought to mix up another mat- 
ter in the controversy which I was pre- 
pared to leave to the good sense of the 
committee. 

“ I could not be bribed or coaxed to do 
violence to my conscience. Perhaps it 
was then as now. It was said, ‘ Pastor 
Foster has too much conscience.’ I could 
not at any rate give up my missionary 
work in my new field until God showed 
me a way out, neither could I give up 
my determination to go to India.” 

There was a somewhat extended and 
heated correspondence between the sec- 
retary and Mr. Foster, and also much 
denominational discussion in the “ Free- 
man ” and the magazines with reference 
to the committee’s attitude and the sec- 
retary’s action, and the unwisdom of 


FOREIGN MISSIONS OR HOME 227 

seeking to run the missionary affairs on 
commercial lines. At the union meet- 
ings in Bradford the entire policy of the 
society was discussed, and a new regime 
inaugurated ; prosperity ever since has 
attended its operations. The funds have 
at least trebled, the missionary staff has 
been largely increased, the work has been 
done as never before, and God has pro- 
vided the means to do it. 

u The present secretary was then an 
assistant in the office. I had his full 
sympathy as to my missionary ideas. 
He has since proved himself the man 
for the place, a man of large ideas and 
full of the missionary spirit, and, not least, 
a man of good sense.” 

During the new rtgime the mission in 
India has been enlarged, China has been 
re-entered, the Congo has been taken up, 
missions in Europe to Roman Catholics 
have been established, and the work 
pushed as never before. The missionary 
literature has been improved and is more 
abundant, and the individual churches 
are more deeply interested in missions. 

It may be that more was accomplished 


228 THE O’ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

through Mr. Foster’s remaining at home 
than would have been if he had quietly 
submitted to the course proposed and 
gone abroad. God, at any rate, has hon- 
ored anew the much-honored missionary 
society in a marvelous way during the 
last thirty-five years. 

Mr. Foster says : “ Friends were di- 
vided as to the wisdom of my decision. 
Some never got reconciled to it, as they 
saw in it the forfeiture of a great future 
as a man of energy and resources, but the 
die was cast, and Wabsterton was to be 
the scene of my labors. Since the stress 
of that mental storm and heart agony I 
have often been tempted to believe, ‘ I 
have surely made a mistake.’” 


CHAPTER XVII 


SOME remarkable conversions 

In what way or by what manner of working 
God changes a soul from evil to good, how he im- 
pregnates the barren rock — the priceless gems and 
gold — is to the human mind an impenetrable 
mystery, in all cases alike. * 

—Coleridge. 

J OHN FOSTER was persistent in ef- 
fort, sympathetic and tender, and 
won the hearts of many for God. He 
gathered around him large numbers of 
people, whole families were converted, 
and many of them made a profession of 
their faith by baptism. 

Mr. Foster was in the habit of holding 
what were termed kitchen or cottage 
meetings wherever encouragement was 
offered to do so. He was requested on 
one occasion to hold a service in the 
house of a James Nelson, favorably dis- 
posed to the gospel. He lived some 
miles from town in a coal-mining dis- 

229 



230 THE O’ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

trict. Previous to the hour of service 
it was usual for Mr. Foster to visit the 
neighboring families to tell them of the 


place and hour of service, and to extend 
a cordial invitation to attend, if possible. 

Among those visited was Widow Denny, 
a woman somewhat advanced in years, 
a lithe, energetic, dark-visaged little 


SOME REMARKABLE CONVERSIONS 23 1 

woman, who was regarded as “a trig 
person and glide housewife.” 

“ She responded to my knock,” says 
Mr. Foster, “and appeared holding the 
door a wee bit ajar. I said to her, ‘ Mrs. 
Denny, I have called in a friendly way to 
notify you of a service this afternoon at 
three o’clock in the adjoining house, that 
of Mr. Nelson, and would be pleased to 
have your presence, if at all convenient.’ 

“ ‘ If it be a fair question, wha’ are 
you ? ’ 

“ 1 1 am a minister of the gospel, and I 
have been invited to hold a service in the 
house of Mr. Nelson.’ 

“ ‘ Weel, weel,’ said she, ‘ I’ll gang tae 
nae Dippers’ meeting ; not a fut will I 
put i’ the place. I am an Original Sece- 
der (secession church), and my mither 
afore me, and I am no o’ the kine tae 
join the Dippers. Ye can gang your 
way and hand your meeting at Nelson’s, 
but I’ll no be there at ony rate. I’ll no 
be oot at your service.’ 

“ ‘ But, Mrs. Denny,’ said I, ‘ we do not 
ask you to unite with the Dippers ; it is 
to attend a gospel service. Dipping is 


232 THE O’ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

not the all-important matter. The all- 
important matter is to turn to God, to be 
made a new creature in Christ Jesus. 
But, Mrs. Denny, you should not “craw 
sae crouse ” ; it is your kind which makes 
the best Dippers, as you call them. You 
are a woman with a mind of your own. 
You have an opinion and hold by it, and 
if the Holy Spirit through the word 
showed you that the Dipper folk are 
right, and you wrong, you certainly 
would be a Dipper.’ 

‘“Na, na, my man, you’ll never get 
me under the water, even should I leeve 
tae be as auld as Methuselah, and I 
reckon he lived tae be a glide age, at 
least the book says so.’ 

“ ‘ Mrs. Denny, I trust no harm is done. 
I thought it was courteous to extend to 
you an invitation as a near neighbor. 
Good-afternoon.’ When the fire had burnt 
itself out Mrs. Denny was at the meet- 
ing and an appreciative listener.” 

God was pleased to use the ministry of 
Mr. Foster in leading Mrs. Stalker and 
her daughter I v izzie to a saving trust in 
Christ. Before they made an unreserved 


SOME remarkable conversions 233 

surrender of themselves to him, they 
both had a deep sense of sin, and a dark, 
unhappy season. Mr. Foster had been 
preaching upon the nature and necessity 
of repentance, and the spirit of God used 
the sermon to their awakening and con- 
version. Their decision to be Christians 
divided the family. The husband and 
father was bitterly opposed to salvation 
by free grace alone. In his opinion such 
religion was a mockery, a delusion, and 
a snare of the devil. 

“ Nae mortal man,” said he, “ can tell 
this side o’ the day o’ jidgment, whether 
his sins are a’ forgiven, or his iniquity 
covered, or that he is in possession o’ 
eternal life. I’ll hae nane o’ it. It is 
simply blasphemy, presumption and un- 
blushing blasphemy, and duz naething 
but mak’ hypocrites o’ the warst kine.” 

Mother and daughter prayed earnestly 
for his conversion, and so also did the 
pastor. They had agreed in Jesus’ name 
to request of God this favor. 

James was a man well up in years, a 
carpet-weaver by trade, but in his younger 
years a baker. I11 everything but spirit- 


234 TH E O’ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

ual religion he proved himself a man. 
He had sense, was moral, and had a clean 
record. God heard prayer in his behalf. 

u I wuz led,” said he, “ tae see mysel’ 
a lost an’ undone sinner jist on the very 
brink o’ perdition, and I wuz in sair dis- 
tress nicht and day. In the factory I 
would sit, and as I threw the shuttle and 
worked the treadles I just groaned wi’ 
inward pain. The e’e wou’d fill wi’ 
tears, and the tears rin doon my face, and 
fa’ on the web, and I had a stuffy, chok- 
ing sensation in my throat. And lest I 
should be noticed by my shopmates I 
would get off my loom seat and go under 
the web, as if to examine something in 
connection with the loom. I didna like 
tae be chaffed aboot my weakness or tae 
be rin upon aboot my religion. I wuz a’ 
but beside mysel’, and for a wee while I 
wuzna jist richt; my sins drove me to 
despair.” 

“ On a Tuesday evening, just after 
tea,” says Mr. Foster, “ I was sitting in 
my study, when James, his wife, and 
daughter, were shown in. He had the 
look of a man in deep trouble, and had 


SOME REMARKABLE CONVERSIONS 235 

been brought to me that I might aid him. 
He said : 

“ 1 Mr. Foster, I wuz in a state o’ dis- 
traction, and without saying a word tae 
ain o’ the family, I slipped awa’ frae 
them and went doon by the water’s side. 
I wuz sae dark in my mind and unhappy 
that I saw naething for it but tae put an 
end tae my life. I wuz jist i’ the act 
o’ loupin’ intae the river when I wuz 
gripped by my wife and Lizzie, and held 
as in a vice, and I heard the glide wife 
sabbing, and saying : “ Oh, Jeemes Stalker, 
dinna dae sic a thing as dee by your 
haun,” and they took me and led me awa’ 
frae the place, and here I am craving 
your advice. They can 1100 tell you their 
side of the story, syne you got mine.’ ” 

He afterward said : “ Mr. Foster didna 
upbraid me wi’ my rasli folly ; he kent 
the nature o’ my disease, and talked 
tae me aboot Jesus, the sinner’s friend 
and Saviour. He told me o’ the love and 
power o’ Jesus, and frae the Scriptures 
showed me God’s way o’ peace, pardon, 
and holiness, and then we kneeled doon 
together, and he prayed earnestly tae 


236 THE O’ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

God for me that I micht be savingly 
enlichteued, and made a new man in 
Christ. The prayer of my wife and Liz- 
zie was jist sabs and tears. Naething 
would satisfy Mr. Foster but I must pray 
in my ain behalf to God himsel’, and jist 
tell him what I thoclit o’ mysel’, and 
what I desired him tae dae for me in 
Jesus’ name. Man, I had a battle, but it 
was short and deceesive. I jist prayed : 
( O Lord God, you hae been glide tae me, 
and I am here and no in hell, where I 
deserve tae be. I micht hae been there 
ere 1100, and by my ain act, but I am in 
the land o’ the living. Noo, Lord, you 
ken a’ aboot me, a puir, stippit auld sin- 
ner. I canna dae onything tae save 
mysel’ ; thy grace must dae it a’. And, 
O Lord, I am willing that it should dae 
' it. I throw mysel’ on Christ and his 
feenished wark, noo and forever. O 
Lord, save Jeemes Stalker, in Jesus’ 
name, and glorify thyself. Amen.’ I 
rose frae my knees ; my steeked e’en 
were opened ; my mind wuz peacefu’, 
and my heart gled and cheerfu’. I was 
satisfeed to be saved on God’s own terms 


some remarkable conversions 237 

and in God’s ain way, and tae be amang 
God’s professing people. I am a miracle 
o’ grace.” 

There was great joy that night in the 
home of Janies Stalker, and before re- 
tiring for the night he did what he never 
had before, he asked for the Bible, read a 
bit of Scripture, and then requested all 
to kneel with him in prayer. James 
Stalker and several others were received 
into the church by a profession of faith 
by baptism. He lived a life that adorned 
his profession, and when it came to the 
time when he had to say good-bye to all 
earth, and all that is earthly, he quietly 
closed his eyes in death, sweetly resting 
in Jesus by simple faith. 

On the Lord’s Day afternoon, Pastor 
Foster was wont to conduct an open-air 
service at the Town Cross, taking his 
stand at the foot of a statue erected in 
honor of a poor boy who afterward be- 
came Lord Mayor of London. Around 
this statue Mr. Foster gathered a goodly 
company of hearers. On one occasion 

he had in the crowd a Dick W , a 

bright, active, intelligent Roman Catho- 


238 THE OVERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

lie. He heard the gospel, the Holy 
Spirit dealt with him, and what he heard 
was unto salvation. Mr. Foster at the 



time knew nothing of it. One Sunday 
morning he noticed a stranger who 
showed more than usual interest in the 
service. His face was radiant, and he 
seemed pleased and happy. It was then 


SOME REMARKABLE CONVERSIONS 239 

the custom to have the Lord’s Supper at 
the close of the service, and the stranger 
remained and took his place among the 
communicants. Mr. Foster felt con- 
strained to go and speak to him. He 
inquired his name, his address, and his 
church connection. I11 reply he said : 

“ My name is Richard W . I live 

at the Townhead. I was an Irish Roman 
Catholic, but I am a Roman Catholic no 
longer. I have heard you preach at the 
Town Cross several times, and I have 
been reading the Bible, and, bless God, 
I have seen myself to be a great sinner 
and Christ to be a great Saviour, and as 
you have taught me, I have placed my 
whole heart’s trust in him as my Saviour. 
My sins are pardoned through his blood. 
I am washed in the blood of the Lamb. 
I am a new man, and I thought I would 
show it and that I am a Protestant by 
sitting down at the Lord’s table. I am 
done with Rome and willing to be saved 
in the Bible way.” 

He was requested to remain at the close 
of the service for conversation and prayer, 
and to have all explained to him from 


240 THE O’ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

the Holy Scriptures as to how he should 
profess his faith in Christ. He remained, 
and it was shown that God demanded re- 
pentance and faith, that both were pro- 
fessed by baptism as taught in Romans 
6:4: “ Therefore we are buried with 
him by baptism into death : that like as 
Christ was raised up from the dead by 
the glory of the Father, even so we also 
should walk in newness of life.” He 
was willing to put 011 Christ thus pub- 
licly by baptism. 

He was examined by the deacons after- 
ward, accepted for membership, and pub- 
licly baptized. His conversion and pros- 
pective baptism got noised abroad among 
his Roman Catholic relatives and friends. 
His poor old mother was almost dis- 
tracted and dead with grief, and said : 
“ I would rather have laid him in his 
grave than have him turn his back upon 
his church.” His wife Margery was to him 
vinegar and gall, his brother and brother- 
in-law tormented his life, and Father Mc- 
Dade excommunicated him with, “bell, 
book, and candle.” Poor Richard needed 
courage in that terrible hour. 


SOME REMARKABLE CONVERSIONS 241 

On the evening of his baptism the 
Crown Inn Hall was crowded to the 
doors and seats were at premium. Ro- 
man Catholics were present in large 
numbers, and had possession of the audi- 
ence room at an early hour. It was evi- 
dent there was to be concerted action to 
prevent Richard’s baptism. The pastor 
took in the situation at a glance, and to 
be forewarned is to be forearmed, so be- 
fore giving out the first hymn he said in 
a quiet, good-natured way : 

“ Beloved, it is quite evident that this 
is a mixed company ; we are not all of 
one mind as to Christian doctrine, or as 
to church order, but yet we all profess to 
be Christians. I would impress upon you 
all that this is a house of prayer, and 
that we have in entering this place met 
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to 
worship God with reverence and godly 
fear, or in holiness. To you who are 
strangers to us, our manner of so doing 
may not accord with your ideas, tastes, 
and up-bringing, but we, if mistaken, 
are at any rate sincere, and up to the 
measure of our light would honor and 


242 the overturn o’ botany bay 

serve God. We are most anxious to be 
right in this matter, and to do what is 
right, and if we are astray in faith or 
practice, we are, I trust, open to convic- 
tion and ready to follow Christ and the 
Scriptures. 

“Remember, we are men like your- 
selves, and would have our feelings re- 
spected by you. Behave here as you 
would have us behave if we turned a 
little while to your place of worship. 
We regard baptism upon a profession of 
faith as the highest act of Christian 
homage that man can render to the Lord 
Jesus Christ. I know you will act the 
part of gentlemen and observe the 
‘Golden Rule.’ We shall now proceed 
with the service.” 

There was on the part of the pas- 
tor an absolute self-abandonment to 
Almighty God, that he might be per- 
mitted to go through the service of the 
hour. He was prepared for the worst that 
man could do, but he had faith in God. 
This self-abandon gave him the victory, 
for throughout the service there was re- 
spect, reverence, and undivided attention. 


Some remarkable conversions 243 

The sermon was scriptural and searching, 
on, u With the heart man believeth unto 
righteousness ; and with the mouth con- 
fession is made unto salvation.” 

At the close Richard, with several 
others, were baptized into the likeness of 
our Ford’s death. Roman Catholics all 
over the room could be heard saying: 
u It is a solemn and beautiful service, 
and Dick looked angelic as he went down 
into the water, and if he is all that the 
preacher said a man ought to be, Dick, 
the turn-coat, cannot be a worse man. 
Father McDade may thunder away and 
blow out the candle as much as he 
pleases ; Dick, all the same, is a regular 
brick.” A brief prayer meeting was held 
after the baptism to commend the newly 
baptized ones to God and to the Word of 
his grace. The service was a tender and 
joyous one. The tenderness was special 
in view of the trials to befall Richard 

W as a convert from Romanism to 

Christ. He was specially remembered 
in the prayers. The pastor, at the close, 
said to Richard, 11 You are not thinking 
of going home alone to-night? I shall 


244 ^HE OVERTURN o* botany bay 

see you home. I have a presentiment 
that all is not just right.” 

“ Oh, I am not a bit afraid of them. 
No one will harm me. I have not 
wronged any.” 

Mr. Foster persisted in offering him 
his company, and so Richard was es- 
corted to his home by the pastor. Rich- 
ard had to meet his wife, a powerfully 
built woman, a most bigoted Roman 
Catholic, and a woman with a tongue. 
On the way up the narrow street leading 
to the Townhead, the pastor noticed two 
men skulking away and sheltering in an 
in-shot or recess. He instinctively stepped 
in front of Richard, and up to the two 
half-hidden men, who turned out to be 
Richard’s brother and brother-in-law. 
The latter was armed with a gun. 

“ With a heart beating wildly,” says 
Mr. Foster, “ yet in a cheery, good-na- 
tured tone, I said, ‘Good evening, boys,’ 
and inquired, ‘ Why are you in hiding, 
and armed with a gun on the Ford’s 
Day?’ ‘We are waiting for Dick, the 
turn-coat, and we mayne to shoot him, 
shure, for giving up his relayjon.’ 


SOME REMARKABLE CONVERSIONS 245 

“ ‘ Oil,’ said I, ‘is that it? He has not 
given up his religion, if he ever had any. 
He has now got a little more, which may 
add greatly to the value of what he had. 
Now, boys, why should you do such a very 
wicked thing as shoot your own brother? 
He has done you no wrong and loves you 
more than ever, and is likely to seek only 
your good. Do you really believe it 
would be a Christian act to shoot him ? 
He is your own brother. Do you believe 
our Lord and Saviour taught men to act 
as you now propose to do ? ’ 

“ To this Richard’s brother replied : 
‘ But, your riverence, he is a pervert. 
He is not fit to live ; he has denied the 
faith and left the thrue church and dis- 
graced all of us, and made our own salva- 
tion a very difficult matter now. Father 
McDade towld us the marning of his ex- 
communication, that if we ever met him 
in the roadway we were to take the other 
side of it; that we were not to look at 
him, but turn the head the other way. 
We were not to be on spaking terms wid 
him whatever. If he took sick, as he 
shurely would, we were not to visit him 


246 THE OVERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

or befriend him in any way. If in need 
we were not to aid him, but allow him 
to starve and die like a dog, as he surely 
would, abandoned of God and his holy 
church.’ 

“ ‘ Now, boys, look here,’ said I, ‘ we 
must get to understand each other. If 
you are really going to shoot Richard for 
obeying the voice of an enlightened con- 
science and what he believes to be the 
teachings of the Holy vScriptures, you 
will first have to shoot me, as living, I 
shall have to witness against you both, 
and my testimony will bring you to the 
gibbet. The murder of your brother 
Richard will do more to injure Holy 
Mother Church than aid her. Boys, if 
you dare, shoot me. You will have to do 
it to destroy the evidence of your guilt. 
You are, as it is, open to legal proceed- 
ings for carrying arms illegally, and also 
for conspiracy to murder. Richard and 
myself are witnesses. You are in a bad 
fix, boys, by this night’s doings, and it 
may send you across the seas. You know 
your own conscience is against you and 
in favor of Richard. For your own sake 


SOME remarkable conversions 247 

and his go home peaceably and live to be 
friends.’ 

“ 4 Shure, your riverence, Father Mc- 
Dade towld us he was bought wid Prot- 
estant money, and that he had sowld 
himself to the devil to work the ruin of 
the Holy Roman Catholic Apostolic 
Church, and if that is so, he is not fit 
to live.’ 

“ I replied : ‘ If Richard has wronged 
God and his church, God will deal with 
him in his own time and way. It is not 
yours to usurp the place of God Almighty 
to execute vengeance. If you mean to 
fight at all let it be to fight the battle 
of truth, and do so in the spirit of the 
great Teacher, Jesus, chastened by much 
prayer.’ ” 

He talked them out of their wicked 
design of shooting Richard. Thoroughly 
cowed, the charges were withdrawn from 
the gun, and both went away home like 
men who had awakened out of a dream. 
From that day they ceased to molest Rich- 
ard. He proved himself an earnest, de- 
voted, growing Christian, filling a useful 
place in the Sunday-school and also in 


248 THE O’ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

the prayer meetings. God gave him his 
family for Christ, for from his conversion 
he sought to bring them up in the nur- 
ture of the Lord. When his relatives 
saw his better life, they became recon- 
ciled to him and freely acknowledged 
that the gospel had made him a better 
man. 

Mr. Foster said afterward: “I shall 
never forget that awful night in that 
narrow, dark, quiet street, with the two 
brothers bent upon the murder of Rich- 
ard W . How I went home nerv- 

ously exhausted, not to sleep, but to toss 
in bed, giving glory to God for his mer- 
ciful intervention. I was ready at the 
moment to die, if need be, in the inter- 
ests of soul-liberty and freedom of wor- 
ship.” 

’Tis not for man to trifle. Life is brief 
And sin is here. 

An age is but the falling of a leaf — 

A dropping tear. 

We have no time to sport away the hours ; 

All must be earnest in a world like ours. 


In Wabsterton, as in Botany Bay and 


SOME REMARKABLE CONVERSIONS 249 

Binnie and Union Courts, there were 
many striking conversions and a useful 
work done. 



CHAPTER XVIII 


SETTLING AT WABSTERTON 
Awful heaven ! 

Great Ruler of the various hearts of men ; 

Since thou hast raised me to conduct thy church 
Without the base cabal too often practised, 

Beyond my wish, my thought, give me the lights, 
The virtues, which that sacred trust requires : 

A loving, loved, unterrifying power, 

Such as becomes a father ; humble wisdom : 

Plain, primitive sincerity ; kind zeal 
For truth and virtue, rather than opinions ; 

And, above all, the charitable soul 
Of healing peace and Christian moderation. 

O N the eighteenth of January, 1866, 
an ordaining council met in the 
Crown Inn Hall to consider the advis- 
ability of setting apart Mr. John Foster 
to the work of the gospel ministry, and 
to the pastorate of the Wabsterton 
Church. The council was a very rep- 
resentative one, consisting of pastors, 
deacons, and others. It was not the 

usual course, but was followed at the re- 

250 


SETTLING AT WABSTERTON 251 

quest of the pastor-elect. The principal 
of the theological school was chosen 
moderator, and conducted the business 
with dignity and ability. Mr. Foster 
read a statement giving an account of 
his conversion, his personal history as a 
Christian, his views of Christian doc- 
trine and church order, and his motive 
for being set apart to the work of the 
ministry and the pastorate of the church. 
Several questions were put to the candi- 
date and satisfactorily answered. When 
the examination was completed, the 
church was asked to state whether they 
would sustain the call extended to the 
pastorate. Two of the deacons answered 
in the affirmative for the church, and 
John Foster was set apart to the pastor- 
ate by prayer and the laying on of hands. 

The Lord’s Supper was then observed 
by the church, council, and visiting 
brethren, and it proved a hallowed and 
refreshing season. 

Later on in the evening there was 
a tea-meeting, or what is termed a 
soirke. After the refreshments came the 
addresses to pastor and people, delivered 


252 THE O’ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

by able men. Then followed a state- 
ment of denominational principles, that 
the newly recognized body might stand 
squarely with the public, and so in the 
name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, 
the church in Wabsterton was launched 
as a missionary organization in a needy 
district. Since then it has weathered 
many a storm and its light still shines. 


Wedded life is founded on esteem, 

Which the fair merits of the mind engage ; 

For those are charms that never can decay ; 

But time, that gives new whiteness to the swan, 
Improves their lustre. 

John Foster for seven long years was 
engaged to Miss Elizabeth Stuart, a tall, 
slender, good-looking brunette, and, like 
himself, an orphan. She had a good 
head, big heart, clever hands, much good 
sense, and was a person of thrift. She 
was also a student, and grew with his 
growth in all that interested him. They 
had been members of the same congre- 
gation, converted under the same minis- 
try, and received into the same church 
by baptism. 




I 




r 







* 




2 54 TH E OVERTURN O* BOTANY BAY 

They never had a quarrel in all the 
seven years, and their love-making was 
attended with very little of the romantic 
nonsense that is generally credited to true 
love, which is supposed never to run 
smooth. They had “taken to” each 
other, they scarcely knew how, and had 
been ever true. They agreed to be yoke- 
fellows for life and in Christian service. 
It was to them no light affair but a most 
serious decision and demanded much 
self-denial. John Foster desired a wife 
and not a lady, and he got her and was 
thankful. 

Scotchmen, as a rule, are not very 
demonstrative in their love affairs. Their 
words are few and well chosen, but their 
actions voice the language of the soul. 
The Scot is to a degree matter-of-fact, yet 
he loves none the less. The outer is a 
stern reserve, the inner a warm, generous 
heart. 

John Foster was married to Elizabeth 
Stuart in the church edifice on the 
twenty-fifth of January, 1866, at half- 
past four. It had been their house of 
worship for years, also the scene of Pas- 


SETTUNG AT WABSTERTON 255 

tor Foster’s labors as a youth in the 
Sunday-school, the prayer-meeting, and 
in behalf of the Botany Bay folk. 

There was a large assembly of old 
friends and well-wishers. It was a gala 
day in Botany Bay in honor of their old 
friend, tried and true. A number of his 
fellow-students and their lady friends were 
present, as also the pastor, deacons and 
their wives, and a few relatives. His 
theological tutor, his pastor, and an old 
brother minister took part in the cere- 
mony, and the latter gave away the bride. 
It passed off to the satisfaction of all. 

The bride and bridesmaids were appro- 
priately attired in white, without any at- 
tempt at display, and it was remarked by 
those who ought to know, that “Lizzie 
Stuart never looked better,” and, no 
doubt, the groom was of the same opin- 
ion. She was modestly and tastefully 
dressed, as became a Christian woman 
who was about to become a missionary 
pastor’s wife. It would be rash on our 
part to go into the matter more fully as 
to the costumes of the ladies, though 
that to most is of interest. 


256 THE O’ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

After the ceremony, the kissing of the 
bride, and the usual attendant good 
wishes, the wedding party adjourned to 
the church hall, where a sumptuous re- 
past was to be served. The party was a 
large one, and the hall was profusely and 
tastefully decorated with evergreens and 
mottoes for the occasion. The south end 
of the hall had a motto which attracted 
special attention, not only because of its 
artistic value, but because of its senti- 
ment expressed in broad Scotch : 

“ May the moose n’er rin thro’ your 
meal-pock wi’ a tear in its e’e.” 

Mr. Foster says, “ That prayer has been 
abundantly answered.” That unique 
decoration has been preserved and may 
be of use to a younger generation. 

The repast was all that could be de- 
sired, and the addresses became the place 
and the occasion, as did the many prayers 
offered for the young folks’ future. The 
gifts- were numerous, valuable, and ap- 
propriate, and with them they had love 
and good wishes. The whole of the 
proceedings were such as to be deemed 
“the right way to begin life.” 


SETTLING AT WABSTERTON 25 7 

When Mr. and Mrs. Foster left for 
Wabsterton that evening, there were 
showers of rice, old shoes, and good 
wishes. The company was left to their 
own enjoyment, and the newly married 
traveled by rail to their new home, in a 
missionary field among the lowly poor. 
On their arrival they were met at the 
station by the deacons, one of whom had 
been at the marriage ceremony. In be- 
half of the ladies of the congregation, the 
pastor and his wife were presented with 
a marble timepiece, with a suitable in- 
scription. 

Pastor Foster remained in Wabsterton 
fully seven years, during which time his 
labors were attended with signal spiritual 
blessing and many conversions. A church 
edifice was erected suited to the needs 
of the district, and consisting of main 
audience room, lecture hall, and vestries 
with all modern improvements. The style 
is Gothic, the masonry broken rubble 
freestone, with dressed facings, dressed 
rubble front, and three-quarter pitch 
roof. The building stands in its own 
grounds with a house for the caretaker. 


258 the overturn o’ botany bay 

The cost was largely provided for by 
friends of the pastor, and by one friend 
in particular, who ever proved a friend 
indeed. 

John Foster, as known to us, is by no 
means a faultless character. Made out 



of the same lump as others, he had the 
weaknesses common to all. He was im- 
pulsive, nervous, sympathetic, sensitive 
to a high degree. No trimmer, he had 
convictions and the courage of them, 
and where principle was involved, he 
would rather break than bend, holding 
that principle is dearer than life itself. 



SETTLING AT WABSTERTON 259 

Persons of the opposite temperament, 
and with a different training in life, have 
had difficulty in placing him, and have 
been tempted to regard him as intract- 
able. Once understood by his friends, they 
knew where to find him in all weathers. 

He has had serious sickness, and at 
times has been brought very low, yet 
never laid wholly aside from labor in the 
gospel. A seasonable rest might have 
saved him much suffering, but the de- 
mands of a family lashed him to the 
ship’s steering gear in the stress of the 
storm of his life voyage, and forbade 
him relaxation in calmer waters. 

Lizzie Stuart has been to him all that 
she promised, and more. A good wife, 
the best of mothers, a wise counselor, 
and a woman of astonishing thrift and 
management, and indomitable pluck. 

In Wabsterton there were born to 
them two sons and two daughters, and 
since that two daughters and one son, 
seven in all. All of them were led to 
the Saviour in childhood, and were bap- 
tized by their father on a profession of their 
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is said 


260 the overturn o’ botany bay 

that they are “ braw bairns, brainy and 
brave,” capable of making their way in 
the world and of living to some purpose. 

On a very limited income this large 
family was reared and received an edu- 
cation and training fitting them for use- 
fulness in the world. John Foster’s 
wealth was Hebrew wealth. He never 
accumulated money, yet he kept free 
from debt, and his only indebtedness is 
to love. 

His wife has always had the heavy end 
of the load, the common lot of the min- 
ister’s wife, if she is worthy of the 
name of wife. All the income the Ford 
through his people gave John Foster 
he placed in his wife’s hands, believing 
that she would use it to better advantage 
than he possibly could do, and he never 
had reason to regret his action. 

In the Christian congregation, or parish, 
if the minister’s wife is the mother of 
a family, she deserves more love and 
sympathy than she generally receives. 
Thoughtless, heartless persons too often 
expect her to work miracles in the way 
of outward appearances, and in leading 


SETTLING AT WABSTERTON 26 1 

off in church work, forgetting that the 
minister’s wife is the wife of a man who 
is public property and subject to every 
one’s call, and that the children are 
largely the mother’s care. 

The conduct of the minister’s family, 
their every-day presentment in public, 
has its moral effect, and a godly family 
is an effective background to a pastor’s 
preaching of the gospel ; it is the making 
of the picture in its every detail. 

The pastor with a family is more of an 
all-round man, in and out of the pulpit, 
than the childless pastor. His views of 
the world are larger and his sympathies 
are broader, and lie fits more easily into 
his place. But somehow in our mod- 
ern church life this is not generally ac- 
cepted, and the minister unencumbered 
is the man in demand, greatly to the 
weakening of the church’s power. 

May a better day dawn for the broad- 
minded and the stalwart, bringing a wel- 
come to the man with a family, because 
the children are the very sunshine and 
life of the congregation. “ Home is the 
place where a man’s heart dwells.” 


262 THE O’ERTURN O’ BOTANY BAY 

We have told our story, a series of 
u Dipper folk idyls,” not to exalt unduly 



John Foster, but that God may be glori- 
fied by setting forth the use he was 
pleased to make of him in publishing 
the name, the love, and the power of 



settling at wabsterton 263 

Jesus to save sinners. Sometime, later 
on, it may fall to an abler pen than ours 



to relate the remainder of the career of 
John Foster. 

The road our hero had to travel was 
like most uphill ones, intricate, rough, and 



264 the o’erturn o’ botany bay 

difficult. We have seen him sit 011 the 
cold stone doorstep of the locked dwell- 
ing, on the evening of his mother’s 
funeral, homeless, hungry, cold, and sad 
at heart, muttering to himself, as he shiv- 
ered in the cold damp of the evening : 
“ Nae grannie 1100, and mitlier and faither 
deid ! Nae onybody, but God himself 
tae look efter me, and gie me a shelter 
and freens. Grannie’s God wull tak’ 
care o’ Katie’s bairn. He will answer 
grannie’s prayer for her wee boy, and 
soon tak’ him tae that ‘Happy land, far, 
far away.’ ” 

We have endeavored with the mate- 
rials at hand to give glimpses of the 
orphan lad in his life struggle to serve 
God and his generation, that others who 
are now on the lowest rung of the ladder 
may be encouraged to work their way 
upward, and that Jesus may have the 
greater glory. 

Now, dear readers, as you look upon 
the world’s spiritual need, its masses of 
poor, naked, miserable, and wretched 
creatures, see Jesus in each one of them, 
and may you hear him saying : “ Inas- 


SETTLING AT WABSTERTON 265 

much as ye have done it unto one of the 
least of these, my brethren, ye have done 
it unto me.” May we indeed love, trust, 
and obey the Christ who tended and de- 
fended John Foster, minister of the gospel. 

He that has nature in him must be grateful ; 

’ Tis the Creator’ s primary great law, 

That links the chain of beings to each other, 
Joining the greater to the lesser nature, 

Tying the weak and strong, the poor and powerful, 
Subduing men to brutes, and even brutes to men. 

— Madan . 


THE END 







\ 




























































































1 * 








GLOSSARY 


[In the Scottish language the letter A has four differ- 
ent sounds: I. A, as in all, wall. 2. A, short as in 
lak’, mak’, tak\ 3. A, open as in Dad, daddie. 4. 
A, slender or close, as in lane, alane, mane. A is fre- 
quently used instead of 0,as in ane, bane, stane, lang, 
sang, stall.] 


A’, all. 

Aft, often. 

Ain, own. 

Alane, alone. 

Ane, one. 

Atween, between. 
Auld, old. 

Ava’, at all. 

Awa’, away. 

Aye, always. 

Bairn, a child. 

Bawbee, half-penny. 
Bein, comfortable. 

Ben, the inner room, 
a but and ben, two 
rooms. See But. 

Bin, been. 

Blae, blue. 

Blate, bashful, not for- 
ward. 


Blin’, blind. 

Bluid, blood. 

Bonny, pretty. 

Braes, short hills. 

Braw, handsome. 
Brawly, handsomely. 
Brimstane, sulphur. 
Brither, brother. 

Busk, to dress. 

But, the outer room. 

Ca’, call, to summon, to 
make a call. 

Callan, boy, youth. 
Caller, fresh, pure. 
Cam’, came. 

Canny, cautious. 

Caw, to wind yarn, to 
drive a horse. 
Ceeveelized, civilized. 
Certie, troth. 


267 


268 


GLOSSARY 


Claes, clothes. 

Clead, clothe. 

Cuddie, an ass, a don- 
key. 

Cuif, silly fellow. 

Dae, do. 

Dawdle, to trifle. 

Deave, to deafen. 

Dee, die. 

Deil, devil. 

Dicht, to wipe. 

Dinna, do not. 

Doo, to do. 

Doo’, a dove. 

Doon, down. 

Douce, quiet and sen- 
sible. 

Dour, stubborn. 

Dram, a glass of liquor, j 
Dug, dog. 

Durst’ na, durst not. 

E’e, eye. 

E’en, eyes. 

E’en, evening. 

Eerish, Irish. 

Efter, after. 

Faes, foes. 

Fangle, notion, gewgaw. 
Faund, found. 

Fawr, far. 

Fecht, fight. 

Fin’, find. 

Freen, friend. 


Freenge, fringe. 

Gae, go. 

Gaffaw, a loud laugh. 
Gait, way. 

Gane, gone. 

Gang, go. 

Gaucy, stately in ap- 
pearance. 

Gaumrals, silly folk 
Gaun, going. 

Gloaming, dusk. 

Gude, or guid, good. 
Gye, very, as gye gude, 
very good. 

Hae, have. 

Hae, here. 

Hale, whole, healthy. 
Hap, a covering, gar- 
ment. 

Haud, haudin, hold, 
holding. 

Hech, oh. 

Hinsume, hind, behind. 
Hinna, have not. 

Hisna, has not. 

Hough, haugh, low. 
Huz, has. 

I’, in, of. 

Jalouse, to guess. 
Jaw-box, a sink. 

Jean, Jane or Janet. 
Jeemes, James. 


GLOSSARY 


269 


Jigement, judgment 
Jink, to dodge. 

Jist, just. 

Ken, know. 

Kin, relative. 

Kine, cattle, sort. 

Kist, chest, box. 

Laigh, low. 

Leal, good. 

Leeve, to leave. 
Leevin’, living. 

Loup, leap. 

Luve, love. 

Mair, more. 

Maist, most. 

Mak’, make. 

Maun, must. 

Micht, might. 

Mickle or muckle, big, 
large. 

Mither, mother. 

Moose, mouse. 

Mutch, a lady’s cap. 

Nae, na, no. 

Naebody, nobody. 
Nain, none. 

Nane, none. 

Neuk, corner. 

Noo, now. 

Nock, knock. 

Nock, clock or time- 
piece. 


O’, of. 

Och, oh. 

Onlie, only. 

On-gauns, on-goings. 
Oot, out. 

Ow’er, o’er, over. 

Pech, to breathe with 
difficulty. 

Pit, put. 

Preen, pin. 

Puir, poor. 

Rin, run. 

Sab, sob. 

Saften, soften. 

Shoon, shoes. 

Snib, bolt, fasten. 

Speir, inquire. 

Spylled, spoiled. 
Stacher, to stagger. 
Stan’, to stand. 

Steek, to close. 

Stippit, stupid. 

Stour, dust. 

Syne, past time, since. 

Tae, toe, or, to. 

Tak’, take. 

Tain, taken. 

Tat, that. 

Teevil, devil. 

Toon, town. 

Tor, door. 

Twa, two. 


2JO 


GLOSSARY 


Wachle, waddle, walk ] 
like a duck. 

Waestin’, consumption. 
Warst, worst. 

Warstle, wrestle. 

Wast, west. 

Waur, worst. 

Wean, child. 

Wee, little, small. ' 


Wi’, with. 

Wimmen, woman. 
Worl’, world. 

Wull, will. 

Yane, one. 

Ye, you. 

Yon’, yonder. 

Yon’, you know what. 








































































































































APK 5 1901 


ft 








► 


















